BX  8  .H92 

Huntington,  William  Reed, 

1838-1909 . 
A  national  church 


A  I^ATIONAL  CHURCH 


332       Same  ^utljor: 

The  Church  Idea:  An  Essay 

towards  Unity. 
The  Peace  of  the  Church. 


THE  BEDELL  LECTURES  FOR  1897 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH 


BY 

WILLIAM  REED  HUNTINGTON 

RECTOR  OF  GRACE  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK 


E  Pluribus  Unim 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
•  1898 


Copyright,  1897, 

By  THE  Trustees  of  Kenyon  College, 
Gambier,  O. 

All  rights  reserved. 


SHnibcrsttja  3Brfss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


TO  THE 


PRESIDENT   AND  FACULTY 

OF 

KENYON  COLLEGE 

WHAT  WAS  FIRST  SPOKEN  IX  THEIR  HOSPITABLE  HEARING 
IS  NOW  GRATEFULLY  INSCRIBED. 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arcliive 
in  2015 


littps://arcliive.org/details/nationalcliurcliOOIiunt_0 


!•  PAGE 

The  Theory   3 

IL 

Practicability  39 

APPENDIX. 

A.  Concerning  Neutralization  of  Territory  in 

THE  Region  of  Sacramental  Theology  77 

B.  The  Place  of  Temperament  in  Religion    .  92 

C.  A  Bibliography  of  Irenic  Literature,  Amer- 

ican AND  English  100 


I. 

THE  THEORY. 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


I. 

THE  THEORY. 

The  philosophy  of  national  Churches  deserves  an 
ampler  discussion  than  it  has  ever  yet  received. 
Books  in  plenty,  and  very  able  onps,  have  been  written 
upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  as  a  whole.  Special 
"  Establishments  "  of  religion,  such  as  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  England  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland,  have  also  polemic  and  irenic  literatures  of 
their  own.  But  for  the  national  Church  pure  and 
simple,  the  national  Church  considered  as  an  entity, 
existing  within  and  yet  in  a  sense  .  apart  from  the  j 
Church  universal,  while  at  the  same  time  wholly  in- 
dependent of  the  civil  State,  — for  this  wc  seem  still 
to  lack  any  lucid  or  self-consistent  theory.  In  fact, 
a  dispassionate  inquirer  might  well  be  pardoned  were 
he  to  raise  the  question.  Is  such  an  organism  as 
a  national  Church  expedient,  even  if  possible? 

What  account  did  Jesus  Christ  take  of  "nations,"  ^ 
in  the  ordering  of  his  kingdom,  that  wc  should  i)re- 
sumc  to  parcel  out  his  world-wide  realm  in  accord- 


4 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


ance  with  the  shifting  moats  and  alterable  hedges  of 
the  treaty-makers? 

The  local  Church  we  know,  the  single  pastor  with 
his  flock  about  him ;  the  Church  Catholic  we  know, 
"  the  blessed  company  of  all  faithful  people " :  but 
what  is  this  intermediary  concept  of  a  national 
Church  ?  What  is  it  better  than  a  mere  geographical 
expression,  a  name  for  something  that  has  no  sub- 
stantive existence,  a  ghost  of  Gallicanism,an  ecclesi- 
astical No-man's  Land  ?  These  are  questions  which 
the  convinced  Congregationalist  and  the  convinced 
Ultramontanist  agree  in  asking.  Unless  they  can  be 
met  and  answered,  the  advocates  of  national  Churches 
may  as  well  learn  to  hold  their  peace ;  they  are  on 
seas  where  navigation  is  dangerous,  and  neither  the 
pilot  of  the  barque  of  Peter  nor  the  helmsman  of  the 
Mayflower  will  care  a  straw  for  their  signals.  On 
every  account,  therefore,  it  behooves  us  to  be  clear 
in  our  own  minds  as  to  what  we  are  purposing  to 
consider,  and,  however  disinclined  we  may  feel  to 
the  formality  of  definitions,  not  to  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss national  Churches  until  we  shall  first  have 
come  to  at  least  an  approximative  understanding  as 
to  what  "  nations  "  are.  Perhaps  some  such  state- 
ment as  the  following  will  serve  us,  at  least  for 
working  purposes:  A  nation  is  a  people  organized 
under  one  civil  polity,  established  upon  a  definite 
territory,  and  possessed  of  sovereign  powers. 

Wc  need  not  deny  that  to  the  perfection  of 
national  life  characteristics  other  than  these  which 


THE  THEORY. 


5 


I  have  named  do  greatly  contribute.  As  respects 
the  fulness  and  symmetry  of  their  national  life, 
some  peoples  are  more  blessed  than  others.  It  is 
much  to  be  desired,  for  example,  that  a  nation 
should  be  "of  one  language  and  of  one  speech;  "  but 
were  we  to  make  this  requirement  a  part  of  our 
definition,  we  should  rule  out  of  the  family  of  nations 
some  of  its  oldest  and  strongest  members.  It  is 
nmch  to  be  desired,  also,  that  a  nation  should  be  of 
one  blood,  one  racial  stock;  but  if  we  were  to  insist 
upon  this  point,  we  should  kill  the  claim  of  the  United 
States  to  nationality.  No,  the  three  all-important  y 
notes  of  nationality  are  those  that  stand  out  sharply  in 
our  definition,  —  polity,  territory,  sovereignty ;  there 
must  be  discii)line,  there  must  be  area,  there  must  be 
independence.  How  passionately  the  model  nation 
of  the  former  age  clung  to  all  three  of  these  posses- 
sions every  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  remembers. 
Their  law,  their  land,  their  freedom, —  these,  for  the 
Hebrews  of  the  monarchy,  made  the  very  essence  of 
national  life.  At  the  wall  of  wailing  in  the  modern 
city  of  Jerusalem,  you  may  to-day  see  men  and 
women  lamenting  with  strong  crying  and  tears  the 
loss  of  these  credentials  of  nationality.  When 
Christ  came,  the  Jews  had  already  forfeited  one  of  i 


the  three  essentials,  the  sovereignty ;  but  they  I 
shill  kept  hold  of  the  other  two,  their  law  and  ! 
their  land.  They  tried  hard  to  persuade  themselves 
that  they  were  still  a  nation,  but  really  they  were  no 
longer  such.    Their  cry,  "Wc  have  a  law,"  availed 


6 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


them  nothing,  so  long  as  it  must  needs  be  supple- 
mented by  that  other  ciy,  "  We  have  no  king  but 
Csesar."  Sovereignty  having  been  lost,  neither  law 
nor  land,  nor  both  together,  could  make  a  nation  of 
them.  Since  then,  law,  land,  and  sovereignty  all 
have  -gone ;  they  are  a  people  still,  but  they  are  not 
a  nation  any  more.  Whether  "Zionism"  will  make 
them  such  remains  to  be  seen. 

When  the  pioneers  of  Christianity  began  their 
enterprise,  they  found  themselves,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  face  to  face  with  but  a  single  nation,  the 
Roman.  It  was  a  nation  conspicuously  lacking  in 
those  non-essential  notes  of  unity  of  which  I  was 
just  speaking,  oneness  of  language  and  oneness  of 
blood ;  but,  all  the  same,  it  met  the  requirements  of 
our  definition,  in  that  it  covered  a  recognized  area, 
the  basin  of  the  Mediterranean,  was  under  a  single, 
even  though  variously  adapted  discipline,  and  pos- 
sessed a  sovereignty  not  derivative  but  original. 

The  sacred  society,  the  ecclesia,  which  grew  up 
under  these  conditions,  was  necessarily  national  in 
its  scope,  —  not  national,  as  we  know,  in  the  sense 
of  receiving  any  formal  recognition  at  the  hands  of 
the  nation's  rulers,  for,  on  the  contrary,  it  was 
officially  persecuted  :  but  national  in  the  sense  that 
it  permeated  the  nation  and  took  possession  of  it 
from  within,  as  the  sap  of  a  tree  mounts  through  the 
trunk  until  it  has  infiltrated  limb  and  bough  and 
twig  and  leaf.  The  Churches  founded  by  St.  Paul 
and  his  companions  in  different  regions   of  the 


THE  THEORY. 


7 


Roman  Empire  ^vere  not  national  Churches  at  all, 
nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  they  regarded  them- 
selves as  such ;  there  was  but  one  nation,  the 
Empire ;  and  the  conversion  of  the  Empire  brought 
into  existence,  by  necessary  process,  the  first  of 
national  Churches,  the  Roman,  —  not  yet  the  Papal, 
be  it  observed,  but  assuredly  the  Roman.  And  this 
came  about,  let  us  never  suffer  ourselves  to  forget, 
by  growth  rather  than  by  manufacture.  It  was  a 
true  genesis,  not  a  forced  contrivance.  The  Emperor 
Constantine  did  not  make  the  Church  national  by 
establishing  it,  he  established  it  because  he  found 
that  by  an  unobserved  process  it  had  already  become 
national.  It  would  have  continued  national  even  if 
he  had  not  established  it,  for  everywhere  through- 
out that  whole  Roman  world  it  stood  rooted  at  the 
centres  of  life. 

We  come,  just  at  this  point,  upon  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  the  characteristics  that  difference  Chris- 
tianity from  Mohammedanism,  the  Church  from 
the  Mosque.  Islam  could  carve  out  caliphates  by 
the  sword,  irrespective  of  existing  civil  lines,  for 
the  plain  reason  that  the  sword  was  Islam's  recog- 
nized and  acknowledged  instrument.  But  Christ's 
word  to  the  Church  is,  "Put  up  thy  sword  into  his 
sheath."  The  cross  is  not  merely  the  symbol  and 
token  of  Christianity,  it  is  the  implement  as  well; 
the  conquests  of  the  Gospel  are  conquests  of  love; 
and  hence  it  follows  that  instead  of  creating  terri- 
torial jurisdictions,  as  Islam,  at  whatever  cost  of 


8 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


blood,  is  eager  to  do,  the  Christian  Church  simply 
accepts  the  jurisdictions  which  she  finds  made  ready 
to  her  hand,  only  too  thankful  to  let  political  geog- 
raphy alone,  that  she  may  bend  all  her  energies  to 
her  proper  task  of  blessing  human  life.  The  Church 
is  militant,  indeed,  but  her  militancy  is  of  the 
s.iiijatr> and  her  sword  "bathed  in  heaven,"  She  is 
content  to  let  the  powers  that  be  district  the  earth 
as  they  will,  and  fix  the  metes  and  bounds  at  their 
discretion,  if  only  upon  the  territory  thus  delimited 
she  be  allowed  to  enter,  and  to  scatter  over  the  ready 
furrows  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom. 

So  far  as  the  things  justly  and  properly  denom- 
inated things  of  Caisar  were  concerned,  primi- 
tive Christianity  simply  followed  the  line  of  least 
resistance;  and  as  a  consequence  the  first  national 
Church  found  itself  as  perfectly  fitted  to  the  national 
administrative  scheme  as  water,  when  the  gate  is 
lifted,  fits  itself  to  the  arterial  system  of  a  modern 
city. 

The  bearing  of  all  this  upon  the  rise  and  growth 
of  the  Papal  power  it  would  be  superfluous  to  trace. 
The  story  has  been  often  told.  Happily  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  for  one  to  prove  his  loyalty  to 
Reformation  principles  by  vilifying  the  Pope.  The 
argument  which  Romanists  base  upon  the  Petrine 
texts  in  the  Gospels  is  not  so  wholly  devoid  of  plausi- 
bility that  we  must  needs  take  for  fools  or  knaves 
those  who  have  accepted  it  as  sound.  It  is  a  start- 
ling thought,  but  it  is  difficult  for  an  observant 


THE  THEORYo 


9 


investigator  of  the  past  not  to  think  it, —  that  it  may 
have  pleased  Almighty  God  to  make  some  use  of  the 
principle  of  illusion  in  his  education  of  the  race. 
The  illusion  that  the  Empire  was  the  world,  and  that 
its  chief  ecclesiastic  must  necessarily  be  accepted  as 
the  world's  spiritual  head,  may  possibly  have  had  a 
use  and  a  value  in  its  time  of  which  we  moderns  are 
but  ill-provisioned  critics.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the 
point  I  am  making  holds  good,  that  the  early  Church, 
both  before  its  establishment  by  imperial  edict,  and 
after  its  establishment  (so  long  as  the  frontiers  of 
the  Empire  were  unbroken),  was  a  national  Church, 
not  ecumenical  all,  or,  if  ecumenical,  ecumenical 
only  in  the  sense  in  which  Rome  meant  the  world, 
and  the  world  meant  Rome. 

When  the  final  break-up  of  the  Empire  came  to 
pass,  what  had  been  the  nation  became  the  nations; 
and  as  each  of  these  gradually  sphered  itself  into  a 
oneness  of  its  own,  the  Christianity  of  each  naturally 
took  on,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  revealed  a 
distinctive  coloring.  A  converted  people  is  as  sure 
to  retain  a  fractional  part  of  its  inborn  characteris- 
tics, its  constitutional  habit,  as  a  converted  person 
is.  To  drive  out  nature  with  a  club  is  as  impossible 
in  the  case  of  races  as  in  the  case  of  individuals.  A 
Celtic  tribe,  converted,  and  a  German  tribe,  converted, 
did  not  cease  to  retain  each  its  Celtic  or  its  German 
traits.  This  is  not  in  contravention  of  the  truth 
that  God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  peoples,  but 
simply  goes  to  show  that  the  one  blood  is  subject  to 


10 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


some  law  of  differentiation  not  dissimilar  to  that 
wliich  endues  with  varying  shades  of  green  the 
leaves  of  one  and  the  same  tree.  At  any  rate,  the 
religious  mind  of  the  northern  nations  finally  waked 
up  to  the  fact  that  it  had  grown  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  Christianity  of  the  South,  and,  as  a  result, 
the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  came  into  being, 
each  of  them  national  to  such  extent  as  circum- 
stances permitted,  but  no  one  of  them  possessed  of 
so  strong  a  principle  of  internal  coherence  as  the 
imperial  body  from  which  it  had  shaken  itself  loose. 
Meanwhile  the  old  national  Church,  still  centred, 
as  before,  at  Rome,  bated  no  jot  of  her  masterful 
claim  ;  and  in  addition  to  the  schismatical  tenden- 
cies that  distui'bed  them  from  within,  the  Churches 
of  the  Reformation  had  also  to  face  the  constant 
pressure  of  proselytizing  approaches  from  without. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  philosophy  of  national 
Churches  found  breathing  a  little  difficult;  and  only 
in  a  country  blessed,  like  England,  with  splendid 
isolation,  was  such  an  intellectual  achievement  as 
the  immortal  "Polity  "  of  Richard  Hooker  possible. 

Simultaneously  with  the  Reformation  movement, 
came  the  discovery  and  tentative  colonization  of  the 
two  Americas,  with  the  consequent  struggle  of  the 
creeds  to  gain  possession.  South  America  fell  to 
the  lot  of  the  still  vigorous  survivor  of  the  old 
national  Church  of  Rome,  while  North  America, 
after  many  struggles,  came  to  be  recognized  as  the 
fair  field  without  favor,  within  whose  limits  the 


THE  THEORY. 


11 


problem  of  the  non-Roman  national  Church  might 
conceivably,  in  some  distant  future,  be  worked  out. 

And  thus,  after  our  rapid  glance  at  a  far-spreading 
past,  we  find  that  we  have  reached  to-dav,  —  to-dav 
with  all  its  agitating  anxieties  and  dreads;  to-day 
with  all  its  invigorating  promise,  its  invincibility 
of  hope.  But  our  having  reached  to-day  in  our 
inquiry  by  no  means  releases  us  from  the  necessity 
of  philosophizing;  on  the  contrary,  that  duty  lies 
all  the  more  heavily  upon  us.  Under  the  condi- 
tions of  life  in  the  United  States  of  America,  the 
difficult  questions  of  national  churchmanship  lend 
themselves  to  discussion  with  better  promise  of 
fruitful  results  than  anywhere  else  in  Christendom. 
They  mount  the  great  telescopes  nowadays  in  regions 
where  the  atmosphere  is  known  to  be  exceptionally 
clear;  doubtless  we  Americans  have  many  motes 
in  our  sunbeam,  but  of  the  particular  variety  of 
mote  known  as  ecclesiastial  prejudice  the  air  has, 
by  many  rains,  been  washed  clean.  Unhampered 
by  establishmentariau  prejudices,  and  witliout  the  ^ 
slightest  fear  that  the  civil  power  will  either  lay  an 
embargo  upon  our  inquiry  or  flout  us  for  the  con- 
clusions reached,  we  can  work  away  at  our  problem 
with  a  perfectly  free  hand.  There  will  be  time 
enough  for  dealing  with  the  practical  side  of  the 
subject  by  and  by.  For  the  present  the  rationale, 
the  theory,  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the  matter, 
must  still  detain  us. 

For  example,  there  is  a  concession  to  be  made, 


12 


A  XATIOXAL  CHURCH. 


and  a  most  important  one.  "We  are  bound,  I  think, 
to  concede  to  the  Ultramontanist  that  his  conception 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  as  being  world-wide  in  its 
scope  and  range  is,  as  a  conception.  Tar  loftier,  far 
more  soul-inspiring,  than  what  is  apparently  the 
Nationalist's  notion  of  the  thing.  The  Nationalist 
can  of  course  appeal  and  does  appeal  to  the  strong 
instincts  of  patriotism.  The  enthusiasm  which  the 
present-day  Englishman,  for  instance,  feels  for  his 
national  Church  is  unquestionably  very  much  mixed 
up  with  the  enthusiasm  which  he  feels  for  England. 
But  it  is  wonderful  how  little  the  New  Testament 
has  to  say  about  the  duty  of  patriotism.  When 
clergymen  are  minded  to  preach  political  sermons, 
tliey  commonly  are  driven  to  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testarrient  in  search  of  their  texts.  The  polity  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  ecumenical,  not  national.  When  in 
his  character  of  conqueror  He  goes  forth  to  war, 
his  "  far-flung  battle-line "  reaches  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  In  the  beginnings  of  his  ministry.  He 
had,  indeed,  much  to  say  of  a  special  mission  to 
Israel.  His  language  to  more  than  one  of  the  for- 
eigners with  whom  He  was  brought  in  contact  had  a 
distinctly  Hebraic  tincture.  But  as  the  end  draws 
near,  the  catholic  scope  of  his  mission  is  disclosed. 
"And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,"  He  cried,  "will  draw  all 
men  unto  Me." 

It  was  in  this  sense  that  Paul,  from  the  outset, 
understood  his  Master.  Language  more  comprehen- 
sive than  St.  Paul's  with  respect  to  the  largeness 


THE  THEORY. 


13 


of  the  Kingdom,  it  would  be  impossible  to  frame. 
If  he  meutions  national  and  race  distinctions,  it  is 
only  that  he  may  slur  them.  Xo  Jacobin  or  Inter- 
nationalist was  ever  more  intolerant  of  patriotism, 
in  the  narrow  sense,  than  he.  He  valued  his  Roman 
citizenship,  to  be  sure,  for,  as  a  man  of  sense,  he 
was  not  indifferent  to  the  practical  advantages  which 
it  secured ;  but  whenever  it  was  seen  to  be  a  ques- 
tion of  the  Kingdom,  Scythian  and  barbarian  drew 
upon  his  sympathies,  and  challenged  his  interest  as 
powerfully  as  the  best  Roman  of  them  all.  We  must 
therefore,  as  I  said,  concede  to  the  Ultramontanist  a 
superiority  over  the  Nationalist  as  touching  the  aims 
which  the  two  respectively  hold  up  to  themselves. 
How,  then,  are  we  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  our  duty  as  good  Christians,  pupils  of  the  New 
Testament  rather  than  of  the  Old,  to  forsake 
nationalism  altogether,  and  to  follow  the  Ultramon- 
tanist whithersoever  he  may  lead,  even  though  our 
doing  so  take  us  across  the  mountains,  and  bring 
us  to  the  city  where  the  man  holding  the  keys  sits? 
We  cannot  avoid  that  conclusion,  save  by  taking  the 
ground  that  nationalism  in  religion  is  a  temporary 
expedient,  a  policy  forced  upon  us  by  the  necessities 
of  the  present,  and  destined  in  due  time,  unless 
indeed  the  course  of  this  world  be  meanwhile  inter- 
rupted by  the  personal  coming  of  the  King,  to  merge 
in  the  larger  ecclesia  in  which  are  to  be  gathered 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  The  Ultramontanist's 
error  is  not  in  claiming  a  world-wide  dominion  for 


14 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


the  Church, —  there  he  is  right;  but  rather  in  failing 
to  see  that  the  Church  of  Rome,  magnificent  as  her 
career  has  been,  and  deep  as  our  gratitude  to  her 
must  always  be,  was  never,  after  all,  anything  but  a 
national  Church  herself,  and  that  hence  her  attempt 
to  administer  this  modern  world  which  long  since 
ceased  to  be  a  single  nation  is  an  anachronism.  If 
at  this  the  Ultramontanist  turns  upon  us,  as  he  is 
very  likely  to  do,  with  a  charge  of  inconsistency,  in 
that  we  acknowledge  the  necessarily  fragmentary 
and  inchoate  character  of  national  Churches,  but  at 
the  same  time  have  no  scheme  to  offer  for  an  ecu- 
menical polity  that  shall  be  large  enough  for  the 
whole  world,  our  answer  is  the  old  one  that  Moses 
gave  to  Pharaoh  when  the  king  sought  to  bind  him 
down  to  terms  in  the  matter  of  the  exodus,  "We 
know  not  with  what  we  must  serve  the  Lord  until 
we  come  thither."  Even  so  we  Nationalists  know 
not  precisely  what  will  be  the  proper  ecclesiastical 
framework  for  "the  Federation  of  the  World"  until 
we  "come  thither."  Certainly  that  goal  is  far 
enough  away  at  present,  nor  may  we  hope  to  see  it 
heave  in  sight  until  what  our  Lord,  in  a  most 
suggestive  phrase,  calls  "the  times  of  the  Gentiles" 
shall  have  been  fulfilled. 

For  the  present  it  is  plain  that  the  Sovereign 
Commander  of  all  the  world  has  use  for  nations; 
and  since  no  one  of  these  nations  can  interfere  in 
the  internal  affairs  of  any  other  one  without  there 
ensuing  a  clash  of  sovereignties,  the  best  that  the 


THE  THEORY. 


15 


Christianity  of  each  nation  can  do  is  to  orb  itself 
into  a  unity  of  its  own-  The  Roman  Church  seeks 
to  avoid  this  difficulty  by  its  device  of  concordats, — 
solemn  treaties,  that  is  to  say,  negotiated  from  time 
to  time  between  the  papal  see  and  the  various  govern- 
ments of  Christendom,  whereby  certain  rights  and 
privileges  are  guaranteed  by  the  secular  to  the  sacred 
society ;  but  the  fact  that  it  has  proved  impossible  to 
carry  out  this  scheme  with  anything  like  symmet- 
rical completeness  would  seem  to  be  the  sufficient 
condemnation  of  the  principle  upon  which  it  is  based. 
The  method  of  the  concordat  offers  too  many  oppor- 
tunities for  intrigue.  It  tempts  the  Church  into  the 
sins  that  beset  diplomacy.  It  is  only  too  likely 
to  promote  a  substitution  of  finesse  and  adroitness 
for  the  transparent  sincerity  which  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  twelve  commend. 

But  it  is  urged,  and  with  much  show  of  reason, 
that  it  will  not  do  to  intrust  the  Christian  religion 
to  the  nations  in  severalty,  since  there  is  a  danger, 
if  we  do  so,  that  the  substance  of  the  faith  may 
suffer  wrong,  may  be  depraved  in  quality  or  impov- 
erished in  quantity.  The  argument  by  aid  of  which 
the  Roman  Church  defends  its  continued  use  of  the 
Latin  tongue  for  the  purposes  of  worship  is  this, 
that  there  would  be  danger  of  the  liturgy's  becoming 
corrupt  were  it  to  be  translated  into  the  various 
languages  of  the  modern  world.  The  Mass,  it  is 
urged,  might  under  such  circumstances  grow  to 
mean  one  thing  to  one  people  and  another  to  another. 


16 


A  XATIOXAL  CHURCH. 


If  this  reasoning  holds  good  with  respect  to  the 
liturgy,  with  tenfold  force  must  it  apply  to  dogma. 
"What  guarantee  have  we,"  asks  the  Ultramontanist, 
"  that  the  very  essence  of  the  faith  itself  may  not  be 
at  any  moment  put  in  jeopardy,  if  each  national 
Church  is  to  be  allowed  to  frame  its  own  doctrinal 
system,  lengthen  or  shorten  its  creed  at  will?" 

This  raises  at  once  the  whole  question  of  the  basis 
of  authority  in  matters  of  religious  belief,  and  brings 
nationalist  and  iufallibilist  face  to  face. 

There  was  a  time  when  Mother  Church  could  hush 
inquiry,  as  any  mother  hushes  any  child,  with  a 
"Never  mind  'Why?'  Believe  what  I  tell  you 
because  it  is  I  who  tell  you ;  do  as  I  bid  you  because 
it  is  I  who  bid  you."  The  sixteenth  century  move- 
ment upset  all  that,  and  by  a  somewhat  rough 
process  drove  the  children  into  inquiring  for  them- 
selves, not  always  wisely,  though  always  eagerly, 
as  to  what  the  truth  might  be  with  regard  to  the 
foundations  of  faith.  To-day,  whether  you  are  un- 
dertaking to  tell  a  man  what  he  ought  to  believe  or 
what  he  ought  to  do,  he  is  equally  likely  to  turn  on 
you  with  a  peremptory  and  unceremonious  Why  ? 
Alike  on  agenda  and  on  credenda  is  stamped  the 
interrogation  mark. 

Just  at  present  the  storm-centre  happens  to  be 
immediately  over  Holy  Scripture.  We  have  fallen 
upon  times  when  the  well-worn  formula,  "The 
Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,  the  Religion  of  Protes- 
tants," scarcely  suffices  for  controversial  needs. 


THE  THEORY. 


17 


The  issues  of  to-day  lie  back  of  the  Bible,  and  it 
is  no  longer  possible  to  silence  the  inquirer  by 
throwing  a  text  at  him.  Men  have  raised  the  ques- 
tion, ""What  is  the  Bible  ?"  and  they  are  discussing 
it  in  hot  earnest.  You  and  I  believe  that  the  Bible 
is  coming  out  of  the  fires  stronger  than  ever,  but 
■we  must  not  let  that  belief  blind  us  to  our  need  of 
authoritative  guidance  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
book.  The  individual  mind  is  not  sufficient  for 
these  things,  it  must  have  help.  A  deep  philosophy 
underlay  the  question  with  which  an  ancient  Bible- 
student  parried  the  inquiry,  "  Understandest  thou 
what  thou  readest?"  "How  can  I,  except  some 
man  should  guide  me  ?  " 

There  are  four  possible,  ways  of  construing  the 
promise  of  Christ  that  the  Spirit  should  guide  the 
disciples  into  all  the  truth;  we  may  call  them,  re- 
spectively, the  pietistic,  the  patristic,  the  infalli- 
bilistj  and  the  ecumenical.  The  pietistic  theologian 
(and  I  use  the  adjective  not  contemptuously,  but 
only  with  a  view  to  clearness)  finds  in  Christ's 
promise  an  encouragement  to  the  individual  believer 
to  count  upon  ascertaining  in  every  instance  the 
true  meaning  of  psalm,  parable,  and  prophecy,  if 
only  he  read  his  Bible  with  an  honest  prayer  upon 
his  lips  for  spiritual  light.  It  will  scarcely  bo 
alleged,  even  by  the  most  ardent  devotees  of  this 
method,  that  it  conduces  to  corporate  unity.  They 
are  more  likely  to  take  the  ground  that  corporate 
unity  is  a  delusion  and'  a  snare ;  glorying  in  rather 

2 


18 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


than  lamenting  ovei'  the  diversity  of  result  which 
the  working  out  of  this  theory  of  interpretation 
hrings  to  pass.  Their  appeal  is  to  the  heavenly 
city,  and  they  are  quite  content  to  postpone  the  ac- 
complishment of  any  unity,  other  than  an  emotional 
one  to  the  celestial  calends. 

What  the  far  future  is  to  the  pietist,  that,  as 
respects  the  secret  of  outward  doctrinal  agreement, 
the  far  past  is  to  the  man  who  stakes  everything 
upon  the  Fathers.  For  the  one  the  golden  age  lies 
distantly  ahead ;  for  the  other,  that  blessed  era  was 
hermetically  sealed  up  centuries  ago.  If  you  want 
to  know  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  as  it  was  originally 
injected  into  Holy  Scripture,  provide  yourself  with 
a  Library  of  the  Fathers  (the  Benedictine  edition  is 
the  best),  and,  wholly  oblivious  to  the  changes  which 
fifty  generations  of  Christian  study  and  Christian  dis- 
covery have  wrought  in  the  intellectual  sky,  give 
yourself  patiently  to  the  task  of  disengaging  from 
a  badly  tangled  skein  the  one  precious  thread  of 
unanimous  patristic  consent.  This  is  what  is  known 
as  the  appeal  to  antiquity.  That  it  has  immense 
value  as  an  element  in  the  ascertainment  of  truth 
only  a  smatterer  in  theology  will  deny.  To  put  it 
forward  as  the  alone  all-sufficient  organon  is  to  court 
discomfiture. 

The  retroactive  influence  which  too  much  harping 
upon  this  single  string,  "antiquity,"  exerted  over 
the  mind  of  a  well-remcnibcred  ecclesiastic  of  our 
day  had  much  to  do  with  bringing  to  a  head  the 


THE  THEORY. 


19 


third  of  the  four  great  theories,  —  the  infallibilist. 
Henry  Edward,  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Westminster, 
had  heard  so  much,  while  an  Anglican,  about  the 
authority  of  the  Fathers,  that  he  had  grown  into 
that  mood  of  mind  which  prompted  Coleridge  in  an 
impatient  moment  to  cry  out,  "  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity, I  am  weary  of  the  word,"  Manning  grew 
weary  of  "  antiquity. "  He  had  the  eye  to  see  that 
there  were  a  good  many  anxious  questions  floating 
about  in  the  modern  atmosphere  which  the  Fathers, 
whether  Ante-Nicene  or  Fost-Nicene,  had  never  so 
much  as  touched  with  the  tips  of  their  fingers;  and 
it  was  deeply  borne  in  upon  his  mind  that  it  would 
be  an  immense  relief  to  see  established  somewhere 
—  and  if  somewhere,  where  so  appropriately  as  at 
Rome  ?  —  an  oracle  of  present-day  truth  to  which 
discouraged  seekers  might  resort  with  confidence. 
Aided  by  others  like-minded  with  himself,  he  brought 
to  pass,  in  the  memorable  year  of  our  Lord  1870,  the 
enactment  by  the  Vatican  Council  of  a  constitu- 
tion the  most  significant  passage  of  which  reads  as 
follows :  — 

"  The  Roman  Pontiff,  when  he  speaks  ex  cathedra,  that 
is,  when  in  discharge  of  the  office  of  pastor  and  teacher  of 
all  Christians,  by  virtue  of  his  supreme  apostolic  author- 
ity he  defines  a  doctrine  concerning  faith  or  morals  to 
be  held  by  the  universal  Church,  is,  through  the  divine 
assistance  promised  him  in  blessed  Peter,  possessed  of 
that  infallibility  with  which  the  divine  Redeemer  willed 
that  liis  Church  should  be  endowed  in  defining  doctrine 


20 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


about  faith  and  morals,  and  therefore  such  definitions  of 
the  Eoman  pontiff  are  irreformable  of  themselves  and 
not  from  the  consent  of  the  Church."  ^ 

The  facts  with  regard  to  the  passing  of  this  resolve 
are  these :  The  whole  number  of  prelates  entitled  to 
take  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Council  was  one 
thousand  and  thirty-seven.  Of  these  the  largest 
number  present  at  any  one  session  was  seven  hun- 
dred and  twenty-seven.  At  the  first  ballot,  which 
was  held  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  July,  six  hundred 
and  one  members  were  present.  Of  these  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  voted  Aye,  eighty-eight  Nay,  and 
sixty-two  Placet  juxta  modum,  or  "Aye,  with  quali- 
fications." At  the  solemn  session,  or,  as  we  should 
call  it,  the  "formal  ballot,"  on  the  eighteenth  day 
of  July,  when  the  final  vote  was  taken,  five  hundred 
and  thirty-five  prelates  participated,  of  whom  five 
hundred  and  thirty-three  voted  Placet,  and  two  Non 
placet.  The  two  dissenters  subsequently  gave  in 
their  adhesion.  From  these  figures  it  appears  that 
on  the  occasion  when  the  balloting  was  entirely 
unbiassed,  that  is  to  say,  at  the  session  of  July  the 
thirteenth,  those  who  voted  Placet  had  a  majority 

1  "  Bomanum  Pontificem,  cum  ex  Catlwdrn  loquitur,  .'d  est  cum  omnium 
Cliristianorum  pastoris  et  doctoris  munere  funr/ens  pro  suprema  sua  Apos- 
tolica  auctoritate  doctrinam  de  fide  vel  moribus  ab  tiniversa  ecclesia  tenen- 
dum dejinit,  per  assistentiam  divinam,  ipsi  in  beato  Petro  promissam,  ea 
infaUibilitate  pollere,  qua  divinus  Rcdemptor  Eccksiam  suam  in  dejinima 
doctrinn  de  fide  vcl  moribus  instruclam  esse  voluit ;  ideoque  ejusmodi  Ro- 
mani  Pontificis  definitiones  ex  sese,  non  autem  ex  consensu  Ecclesia  irre- 
formabiles  esse."  —  Constitut.  Dogmat.  Prima.  Cap.  IV. 


THE  THEORY. 


21 


of  one  hundred  and  fifty  out  of  a  total  of  sis  hundred 
and  one  present  and  voting,  although  they  were  less 
numerous  by  five  hundred  and  eighty-six  than  the 
whole  number  entitled  to  attend  the  Council.  With 
this  hollow  show  of  unanimity  was  promulgated  the 
most  momentous  decree  of  modern  times.  It  is  said 
that  during  that  solemn  hour  a  heavy  storm  passed 
over  the  city  where  the  Council  was  assembled,  dark- 
ening the  spaces  of  the  great  church,  and  punctuat- 
ing the  decree  with  thunder-peals.  Can  we  wonder 
that  the  omen  should  have  been  variously  inter- 
preted,—  that  some  should  have  been  quick  to  say, 
"It  is  the  voice  of  an  angel,"  while  others  murmured 
beneath  their  breath,  *'  It  is  the  JVo/i  placet  of 
Almighty  God"? 

Time  will  show  which  augury  was  true,  and  which 
was  false.  For  there  is  but  one  pair  of  alternatives. 
The  papal  claim  to  be,  in  the  last  resort,  the  sole 
arbiter  of  the  things  that  most  concern  our  peace  is 
either  just  or  unjust:  it  is  quite  impossible  that  it 
should  be  both.  If  Jesus  Christ  really  speaks  by 
Leo,  to  Leo  we  must  go.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
decree  of  July  was  but  the  capstone  of  an  edifice 
already  undermined,  and  doomed  as  soon  as  finished 
to  vanish  away,  nothing  so  much  behooves  us  as  to 
find  a  basis  of  authority  not  liable  to  shock,  some 
floor  broad  enough  and  strong  enough  for  the  nations 
to  build  upon  it  and  be  safe. 

In  what  I  have  further  to  say,  my  endeavor  will 
be  to  show  that  we  have  such  a  foundation.    A  phi- 


22 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


Josophy  there  is  which  at  once  strikes  deeper  than 
the  pietistic  and  stretches  farther  than  the  patristic 
theory.  It  recognizes  and  allows  for  an  important 
element  of  truth  in  each  of  these  others,  while  it 
superadds  an  increment  of  value  which  is  all  its  own. 
I  have  called  it,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  the  ecu- 
menical philosophy  of  authority.  It  is  a  philosophy 
adherence  to  which  will  save  a  national  Church  from 
lapsing  into  provincialism,  while  at  the  same  time 
safeguarding  it  from  the  encroachments  of  any 
alleged  Mother  and  Mistress  of  all  Churches. 

This  philosophy  is  summed  up  in  the  brief  maxim 
of  St.  Augustine,  which  Cardinal  Newman  has  made 
famous,  Securus  judicat  orbis  terrarum.  In  that 
most  instructive  of  all  autobiographies,  "  The  History 
of  my  Religious  Opinions,"  better  known  under  its 
first  title.  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua,  Newman  gives  us 
a  graphic  account  of  the  manner  in  which  that  sono- 
rous sentence  of  the  great  Latin  Father  broke  on 
his  conscience  like  a  revelation.  He  calls  them 
"palmary  words."  They  kept  ringing  in  his  ears. 
He  found  himself  repeating  them  again  and  again. 
"The  words  of  St.  Augustine,"  he  says,  "struck  me 
with  a  power  which  I  had  never  felt  from  any  words 
before.  To  take  a  familiar  instance,  they  were  like 
the  '  Turn  again,  Whittington, '  of  the  chime ;  or,  to 
take  a  more  serious  one,  they  were  like  the  '  ToUe, 
lege,  —  Tolle,  lege,^  of  the  child  which  converted^ 
St.  Augustine  himself.  Securus  judicat  orbis  ter- 
rarum.   By  those  great  words  of  the  ancient  Father, 


THE  THEORY. 


23 


interpreting  and  summing  up  the  long  and  yaried 
course  of  ecclesiastical  history,  the  theory  of  the 
Via  Media  was  absolutely  pulverized."^ 

How  little  did  the  proud,  eager,  passionate  soul 
of  John  Henry  Xewman  dream  that  in  less  than  six 
years  after  the  making  of  this  frank  disclosure  of 
the  chief  reason  that  had  carried  him  to  Rome,  he 
would  himself  be  called  upon  to  accept,  at  the  very 
point  of  the  sword,  as  we  may  say,  a  doctrine  of 
religious  certitude  the  very  opposite  of  the  one  he 
here  so  eloquently  sets  forth.  He  turned  his  face 
Rome  ward  because  he  had  become  convinced  that 
England  was  in  isolation,  and  that  only  the  voice  of 
the  Church  Catholic  (for  so  he  translated  Augustine's 
orbis  terrarum)  could  be  trusted;  but  he  had  not 
been  long  housed  in  his  new  spiritual  home  before 
he  was  informed  that  not  at  the  lips  of  the  orhis 
terrarum  at  all,  but  rather  at  the  lips  of  a  single 
ecclesiastic  enthroned  at  the  capital  of  a  dead  em- 
pire, he  was  thenceforth  to  drink  in  truth.  It  was 
like  being  called  upon  to  exchange  the  voice  of  many 
waters  for  the  piping  of  a  phonograph,  —  an  instru- 
ment which  only  reproduces  words  that  have  been 
put  into  it.  Can  we  wonder  that  in  a  hasty  moment, 
as  he  saw  the  evil  day  approaching,  he  should  have 
characterized  as  "an  insolent  faction"  the  people 
who  were  moving  sea  and  land  to  bring  about  the 
definition  of  the  new  dogma  ? 

The  late  Dean  Stanley  is  credited  with  the  epi- 

1  Apoloijia  pro  Vita  Sua,  p.  118,  Am.  ed. 


24 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


grammatic  remark,  "How  differently  might  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  England  have  read  if 
Dr.  Newman  had  only  understood  German ! "  An 
American  Christian  may  be  pardoned  for  adding, 
"  How  differently  might  Dr.  Newman  have  trans- 
lated Augustine's  Securus  judicat  orlis  terrarum 
had  he  once  put  the  Atlantic  between  himself  and 
the  Europe  of  his  studios ! "  For  truly  the  orhis 
terrarum  has  become  a  different  thing  from  what 
it  was  in  the  day  when  the  son  of  Monica  looked  out 
upon  it  and  put  his  trust  in  its  judgment.  But  his 
argument  has  lost  nothing  of  its  strength;  on  the 
contrary,  it  has  been  found  to  possess  a  cumulative 
value,  gaining  in  force  from  century  to  century  as 
man  becomes  more  and  more  aware  of  the  largeness 
of  the  plans  of  God.  The  world  of  Augustine's  time 
was  a  "round  world,  "in  the  sense  in  which  a  circle 
is  round, — there  was  doubt  as  to  its  circumference, 
but  practically  no  doubt  as  to  its  centre ;  our  round 
world  is  round  in  the  sense  in  which  a  globe  is 
round, —  we  are  certain  of  its  circumference,  but  no 
spot  upon  its  surface  can  claim  to  be  an  exclusive 
centre  any  longer ;  and  yet  by  so  much  as  a  sphere 
is  better  than  a  surface,  by  that  much  is  the  argu- 
ment from  general  consent,  which  is  what  the  Securus 
judicat  orhis  terrarum  really  means,  stronger  to-day 
than  it  ever  was.  It  has  been  to  our  advantage,  not 
our  loss,  that  "umbilical"  and  "ecumenical"  have 
ceased  to  be  convertible  terms. 

But  let  us  not  dwell  in  parables.    The  thesis  I 


THE  THEORY. 


25 


seek  to  maintain,  as  the  point  most  central  to  an 
ecumenical  philosophy  of  authority  in  the  region  of 
religious  belief,  is  this,  that  Christ's  promise  ^  of  the 
guidance  of  the  Spirit  runs  to  the  Church  as  a  whole, 
to  the  ecclesia  diffusa,  and  is  self-registering  from 
age  to  age.  This  is  not  a  theory  which  will  satisfy 
precise  minds  that  must  have  everything  cut  and 
dried,  and  cannot  believe  that  God  will  ever  do  a 
new  thing  unless  they  personally  shall  have  been 
informed  as  to  the  when  and  where  of  the  birth; 
but  possibly  it  may  commend  itself  to  those  who, 
patiently  pondering  in  a  docile  temper  the  general 
drift  of  things,  have  learned  to  account  delibcrate- 
ness  one  of  the  most  infallible  notes  of  divinity. 

In  effect,  this  was  the  method  by  which  the  two 
burning  questions  of  the  early  Church  —  the  question 
of  the  canon  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  question  of 
the  limits  of  the  catholic  Creed  —  were  settled.  The 
Councils  which  dealt  with  these  questions  did  but 
gather  to  a  head  and  put  into  more  definite  shape 
what  was  generally  held  among  the  faithful  to  be  the 
truth  of  the  matter.  The  Bishops  were  rcjirescnta- 
tive  men,  who  came  together,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
concocting  anything  of  their  own,  but  simply  to 
report  what  it  was  that  in  their  several  neighbor- 
hoods was  commonly  believed.  This  is  the  way 
St.  Luke  puts  it  in  the  Preface  to  his  Gospel. 
Others,  he  says,  have  written  tlicir  narratives  con- 
cerning those  matters  which  have  been  fully  estab- 
lished, and  now  he  pro])oses  to  add  his. 

1  St.  John  xvi.  13. 


26 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


Really  it  was  the  steady,  unnoticed,  pervasive 
action  of  the  ecclesia  diffusa,  in  a  word,  the  general 
belief,  the  public  opinion  of  the  early  Church,  which 
settled  both  the  Canon  and  the  Creed.  This  public 
opinion  found  a  mouthpiece  in  Councils,  but  it 
existed  before  the  Councils  were  convened,  and  was 
the  implicit  even  before  it  had  become  the  explicit 
belief  of  the  Church.  This  is  in  line  with  what  the 
best  theologians  have  always  held  with  respect  to 
General  Councils;  namely,  that  they  ought  not  to  be 
accoimted  "  general "  until  there  has  been  time  enough 
to  ascertain  whether  their  findings  be  acceptable  to 
the  Church  at  large.  The  Church,  not  the  Council, 
is  the  Spirit-bearing  body;  it  is  to  the  whole  Church 
rather  than  to  its  representative  assembly  that  the 
promise  of  guidance  runs;  and  although  Councils  are 
of  the  greatest  value  as  a  means  of  ascertaining  what 
the  mind  of  the  Church  is,  nevertheless,  if  it  be 
made  afterwards  perfectly  plain  by  the  course  of 
events,  that  any  Council,  instead  of  having  fairly 
represented,  did  really  misrepresent  the  actual  mind 
of  the  Church  with  respect  to  some  disputed  point, 
that  Council  must  be  content  to  go  into  history  with 
a  black  mark  against  its  name.  This  is  really  very 
High  Church  doctrine,  although  the  fact  that  I  am 
assigning  so  much  importance  to  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  Christian  body,  and  comparatively  so  little  to 
the  official  portion  of  it,  may  blind  the  eyes  of  some 
to  the  true  character  of  my  contention. 

Assuredly  it  is  no  slight  or  cheap  prerogative  that 


THE  THEORY. 


27 


one  claims  for  the  Church  Catholic  when  he  sets  it 
up  as  the  umpire  and  teacher  of  the  human  race, 
maintaining,  as  I  am  seeking  to  maintain,  that  its 
united  testimony  with  respect  to  any  matter  of  faith 
or  morals  comes  nearer  to  an  infallible  utterance 
than  any  other  voice  which  it  is  given  to  man  to 
hear.    The  saints  shall  judge  the  world. 

Do  you  complain  that  the  doctrine  is  shadowy 
and  nebulous  as  compared  with  the  crisp  and  handy 
formula  of  the  Vatican  Council?  No  doubt  it  is 
open  to  that  charge ;  and  probably  no  single  incen- 
tive to  the  promulgation  of  the  infallibility  dogma 
was  more  powerful  than  the  desire  to  cut  short  debate 
over  disputes  which  refused  to  be  settled  other  than 
by  the  old  and  wearisome  process  of  simmering  and 
simmering  until  the  public  opinion  of  the  Church  at 
large  should  confess  itself  content.  It  was  like  the 
introduction  of  the  parliamentary  device  known  as 
the  closure,  or  a  moving  of  "  the  previous  question  " 
in  an  assembly  sick  and  weaz-y  of  the  prolixities  of 
debate.  But  if  it  be  true,  and  the  wise  and  good 
assure  us  it  is,  that  things  are  never  settled  until 
they  arc  settled  right,  the  slow  way  may  prove  the 
better  way,  in  fact,  the  only  way.  "  Closure  "  and 
"previous  question"  are  all  very  well,  where  it  is  a 
matter  of  adjourning  and  going  home  to  luncheon; 
but  for  the  purposes  of  such  legislation  as  is  expected 
to  survive  and  to  endure,  notliing  is  one  half  so  good 
as  "general  consent,"  even  if  it  lias  to  be  waited  for 
with  long  patience,  like  the  early  and  the  latter  rain. 


28 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


But  "  nebulous  "  and  "  shadowy  "  are  not  the  only 
epithets  of  dispraise  which  the  ecumenical  theory  of 
authority  is  likely  to  draw  to  itself.  It  will  be  called 
foolhardy  and  hare-brained,  because  of  its  seeming  to 
laimch  a  very  precious  freight  upon  a  most  tenuous 
and  impalpable  medium,  —  an  Iron-clad,  for  instance, 
upon  a  sea  of  vapor  which  only  simulates  the  great 
deep.  But  even  so,  there  is  still  the  question,  What 
is  Almighty  God's  own  method  of  launching? 

Foolhardy,  indeed,  at  its  first  announcement,  must 
have  seemed  that  theory  of  the  heavenly  mechanics 
which  knocked  all  visible  supports  from  under  sun 
and  moon  and  planets,  leaving  them,  one  and  all,  bal- 
anced apparently  on  nothing. 

We  think  otherwise  to-day,  for  we  have  learned 
that  the  all-pervasive,  everywhere  energizing  force 
which  really  holds  the  stars  to  their  courses,  is  a  far 
better  guarantee  of  order,  a  far  more  trustworthy 
underpinning  than  any  celestial  trestle-work,  whether 
of  steel  or  adamant.  Surely,  what  gravitation  does 
for  stars  the  eternal  Spirit  may  be  counted  upon  to  do 
for  souls,  holding  them  invisibly  to  a  unity  in  the 
truth  which  no  mechanical  device  of  ecclesiasticism 
such  as  the  dogma  of  1870  possibly  can  produce. 

"  God  builds  on  liquid  air ; "  the  beams  of  his  cham- 
bers are  laid  on  ocean's  unstable  floor ;  yet  is  there 
no  sub-structure  so  secure  as  his,  for  He  hath  founded 
it  upon  the  seas  and  established  it  upon  the  floods. 
Poor  Simon  Peter,  like  his  putative  successor,  Pio 
Nono,  was  unequal  to  this  conception  of  what  firm 


THE  THEORY. 


29 


footing  means.  He,  too,  was  struck  with  a  sudden 
panic  as  to  this  question  of  support  from  underneath. 
Beginning  to  sink,  he  cried,  "  Lord,  save  me."  How 
gentle  but  how  searching  Christ's  lesson  in  the  first 
principles  of  certitude,  "  0  thou  of  little  faith,  where- 
fore didst  thou  doubt  ?  " 

Again,  it  will  be  said  that  this  ecumenical  theory 
of  authority  never  can  compete  with  Vaticanism,  be- 
cause what  is  wanted  is  a  court  of  immediate  resort. 
Rome  is  accessible,  we  are  acquainted  with  its  lati- 
tude and  longitude,  we  know  its  place  upon  the  map, 
and  we  can  joui'ncy  thither  with  our  hard  questions 
any  day  we  will ;  whereas  the  twenty-first  century  is 
a  long  way  off,  and  none  of  us  can  hope  to  live  to  see 
the  day  when  by  patient  brooding  over  the  mind  of 
the  Church  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Truth  shall  have 
brought  to  pass  general  consent  as  to  the  doubts  and 
difficulties  that  now  so  grievously  oppress  us.  But 
has  Ultramontanism  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  superi- 
ority in  this  respect  that  is  claimed  for  it?  Can 
answers  be  extracted  from  the  oracle  at  Rome  as 
promptly  as  the  vulgar  suppose  ?  What  is  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  rapid-firing  gun  if  one  never  fires  it  ? 
Since  the  promulgation  of  the  Vatican  decree,  the 
Roman  Pontiff  has  written  a  number  of  letters  to  the 
world,  embracing,  in  all,  many  hundreds  of  proposi- 
tions ;  but  it  docs  not  appear  that  infallibility  is 
claimed  for  any  single  one  of  these  propositions,  inas- 
much as  the  letters  cont.iiuing  them  are  not  known 
to  have  been  issued  e.r  cathedra,  —  in  accordance,  that 


30 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


is  to  say,  with  the  conditions  which  the  dogma  of 
1870  itself  lays  down  as  necessai'y  to  the  putting 
forth  of  an  inerrant  utterance. 

While,  therefore,  the  letters  are  plainly  valuable 
on  account  of  the  large  measure  of  wholesome  and 
timely  truth  which  they  contain,  they  do  not  essen- 
tially differ  in  character  from  letters  of  counsel  that 
reach  us  from  other  ecclesiastical  sources,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  mild  pastoral  set  forth  by  the  recent 
Anglican  Conference  at  Lambeth.  In  fact,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  Holy  See,  under  the  new  constitu- 
tion, will  never  commit  itself  irrevocably  to  either 
side  of  any  momentous  controversy,  whether  ecclesi- 
astical, theological,  or  social,  until  the  straw  shall 
have  been  thoroughly  thrashed  out,  and  a  practical 
unanimity,  at  least  within  the  Roman  Communion, 
already  reached.  It  need  not,  therefore,  necessarily 
be  conceded  to  the  Ultramontanists  that  their  theory 
has  even  the  poor  advantage  of  celerity  in  its  favor. 
Appeal  still  lies  with  them,  as  with  us,  to  the  next 
age.^ 

1  "  I  know  well  that  the  decree  in  question  is  capable  of  many  inter- 
pretations. There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  expresses,  I  will  not  say  a 
truth,  but  even  a  truism.  When  the  I'ope  speaks  as  the  representative 
of  the  Cliurch,  he  cannot  but  speak  truly.  I  grant  it.  The  question 
is,  When  docs  the  Pope  speak  as  the  representative  of  the  Cliurch? 
A  Roman  Catholic  of  my  acquaintance  ventured  to  talk  to  Leo  XIII. 
about  this  dogma,  and  the  obstacle  which  it  presented  to  reunion  be- 
tween England  and  him.  The  Pope  was  distressed,  and  said  that  the 
dogma  must  be  explained.  .  .  .  'The  truth,'  he  said,  pointing  to  his 
own  breast,  '  is  not  in  me  but  in  the  Church.'  He  needed,  he  said,  to 
take  the  proper  means  to  find  out  the  truth,  before  he  could  pronounce. 


THE  THEORY. 


31 


And,  after  all,  why  should  we  fret  against  the  fact 
that  under  any  system  time  must  always  be  an  im- 
portant element  in  the  task  of  ascertaining  truth  ? 
How  was  the  slavery  question  finally  settled  in  Chris- 
tendom ?  Certainly  not  by  the  vote  of  any  ecclesias- 
tical Council ;  certainly  not  by  the  formal  decree  of 
any  Pope :  it  was  settled  by  a  slow  process  in  which 
orators,  divines,  jurists,  story-writers,  and  soldiers,  all 
of  them  had  part.  The  Spirit  of  Truth  certainly  did 
not  make  the  Bishops  and  Clergy  the  only  instruments 
in  this  vast  work,  but  all  estates  of  men  in  God's  holy 
Church,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  bore  severally 
their  parts.  It  was  the  ■  Christian  Orbis  Terrarum 
exercising  its  high  right  of  giving  final  judgment. 

This  is  an  ethical  illustration.  A  theological  one 
would  be  equally  to  the  point.  How  has  the  question 
of  the  six  days  of  creation  been  settled,  and  from 
having  been  an  open  become  a  closed  one  ?  Has  it 
been  by  conciliar  vote  ?  No.  Has  it  been  by  papal 
bull  ?  No.  How  then  ?  By  general  consent.  Gradu- 
ally the  truth  with  respect  to  questions  that  have 
been  long  vexed  gets  into  the  atmosphere,  and  the 
Church  finds  herself  saying,  "  Whereas  I  was  blind, 
now  I  see."  Christians  believe  that  this  slow  but 
sure  illuminating  process  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of 
Truth ;  that  it  is  in  fulfilment  of  a  definite  promise 
made  by  the  incarnate  Son  of  God  ;  and  they  account 

It  was  a  very  tnio  sentiment ;  bnt  if  it  is  true,  then  the  practical  value 
of  the  dogma  is  gone."  —  Mason's  Principles  of  Ecclesiastical  Unity, 
p.  112. 


32 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


for  the  more  swift  advance  of  the  Christianized  as 
compared  with  the  non-Christianized  peoples  of  the 
world,  by  alleging  this  cause. 

I  have  endeavored  to  show  that  in  the  all-impor- 
tant region  of  faith  and  doctrine,  it  is  possible  for  a 
national  Church,  however  it  may  be  limited  in  other 
^  directions,  to  hold  ecumenical  ground.  I  have  laid 
the  main  stress  here,  because  without  a  clear  phi- 
losophy of  authority  back  of  it  a  national  Church  can 
neither  understand  itself  nor  justify  itself.  It  may 
seem  to  some  that  the  argument  has  been  unduly 
labored,  and  that  I  might  safely  have  treated  the 
newly  formulated  papal  claim  as  a  negligible  quantity. 

Others,  however,  will  perhaps  agree  with  me  in 
thinking  that  the  world  has  not  yet  begun  to  appre- 
ciate the  full  significance  of  what  was  effected  under 
St.  Peter's  dome  in  1870.  In  religious  controversy, 
definiteness  counts  for  very,  very  much.  Devout 
minds,  especially  the  minds  of  devout  women  (and 
we  must  remember  that  the  interests  of  religion  are 
largely  in  the  custody  of  women),  yield  readily  to  the 
fascination  of  a  sufficiently  emphatic  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord."  Logical  and  scientific  difficulties  such  as 
those  suggested  by  the  dogma  of  transubstantiation ; 
questions  of  historical  accuracy  like  those  that  en- 
cumber the  Pctrine  claim ;  even  ethical  misgivings 
prompted  by  the  abuses  of  the  Confessional,  the  doc- 
trine of  indulgences,  and  the  cultus  of  the  saints,  — 
will  all  of  them  sometimes  fade  swiftly  away  in  the 
face  of  the  strong  assertion,  "  Rome  has  spoken ;  the 


THE  THEORY. 


33 


case  is  closed."  In  this  world  of  dimmed  eyes  and 
wayward  wills,  absolutism  has  a  charm  all  its  own. 
The  Roman  Empire  dies  hard.  It  is  a  flippant  mind 
that  can  lightly  cast  ridicule  upon  the  Holy  Father's 
tremendous  claim.  Some  of  the  keenest  thinkers  of 
our  day,  men  not  easily  fooled,  have  succumbed  to 
the  magic  of  it. 

So  ardent,  in  deep  natures,  is  the  longing  for  the 
full  assurance  of  downright  conviction,  so  quenchless 
the  thirst  for  certitude,  that  the  mere  spectacle  of  a 
venerable  teacher  who  demands  assent  to  what  he 
says  on  the  plea  of  a  divine  right  is  of  itself  eloquent 
with  persuasion.  Almost  any  harbor  that  offers  an- 
chorage is  grateful  to  storm-beaten  and  half-ship- 
wrecked men. 

"  Surely,  surely,  slumber  is  more  sweet  than  toil,  the  shore 
Than  labor  in  the  deep  mid-ocean,  wind  and  wave  and  oar ; 
Oh,  rest  ye,  brother-mariners,  we  will  not  wander  more." 

The  struggle  which  culminated  in  the  Roman  Com- 
munion in  1870  is  the  old  struggle  between  central- 
ization and  that  genuine  catholicity  which  would 
render  to  every  member  of  the  vast  body  its  due. 
In  civil  society  the  contention  has  gone  on  under  the 
style,  Monarch  versus  People ;  in  the  spiritual  society 
under  the  style.  Pope  versus  Council.  The  plea  I 
have  been  making  is  identical,  though  put  forward 
under  a  somewhat  altered  form,  with  that  by  which 
the  great  politicians  of  the  Church  of  England  have 
stood  fast  ever  since  Trent.    The  appeal  of  England 

3 


34 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


was,  in  a  sense,  an  appeal  to  antiquity,  in  that  it 
insisted  on  IJoly  Scripture  and  tlie  primitive  Creeds 
as  the  all-sufficient  reservoir  of  revealed  truth;  but 
that  appeal  had  also  in  it,  be  it  noted,  a  present-day 
element,  in  that  it  made  petition  for  a  fair  and  truly 
representative  General  Council,  so  constituted  as  to 
do  full  justice  (as  for  obvious  reasons  Trent  could  not 
do)  to  all  the  interests  of  Christendom. 

In  the  supreme  position  assigned  to  Holy  Scripture 
and  the  Creeds,  the  pietistic  and  the  patristic  schools 
have  found,  and  rightly  enough,  their  stronghold ; 
while  in  the  demand  for  the  fair  General  Council 
there  has  lain  latent  all  along  that  recognition  of  our 
need  of  a  present-day  interpretative  voice  which,  as  I 
have  sought  to  show,  only  the  common  consent  of  the 
best  minds  and  hearts  of  Christendom  can  be  counted 
upon  to  meet  and  satisfy.  "  I  read,"  said  the  late  Sir 
John  Seeley,  "  the  Bible  and  the  Times." 

It  is  certainly  among  things  conceivable  —  who 
shall  say  that  it  is  not  ?  —  that  God  in  his  providence 
may  be  preparing  the  way  for  a  General  Council  of 
Christendom  that  shall  be  truly  such.  If  a  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions  is  possible,  surely  a  gathering  rep- 
resentative of  Christendom  ought  not  to  be  impossible. 
It  may  be  that  the  convening  of  such  a  Council  will 
prove  itself  the  ripest  outcome  of,  and  the  worthiest 
employment  for,  the  marvellous  facilities  for  inter- 
course which  modern  inventiveness  —  the  child,  be  it 
observed,  of  Christian  faith —  has  made  ready.  Curi- 
ously enough,  these  new-fangled  contrivances  lend 


THE  THEORY. 


35 


themselves  "with  almost  equal  readiness  and  efficiency 
to  both  of  the  two  philosophies  of  authority  we  have 
been  studying.  On  the  one  hand,  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone may  be  so  employed  as  to  turn  the  Vatican 
into  a  veritable  "  Ear  of  Dionysius,"  where  shall  be 
audible  whisperings  from  every  remotest  corner  of 
the  Pontiff's  world-wide  realm ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  transcontinental  railroads  and  the  great  ocean- 
liners  have  brought  the  ends  of  the  earth  so  close 
together  that  never,  since  the  days  when  James  of 
Jerusalem  could  convene  the  Church  at  a  few  hours' 
notice,  have  the  physical  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
assembling  a  truly  Ecumenical  Council  been  so  few 
as  they  are  now.  Perhaps  there  was  more  of  literal- 
ness  in  John  the  Baptist's  prophecy  than  has  com- 
monly been  supposed ;  and  perhaps  all  this  filling  up 
of  valleys,  levelling  of  hills,  and  general  shorten! ug 
and  straightening  of  paths  and  ways  may  have  for  its 
chief  object  that  drawing  together  of  the  scattered 
family  of  man  which  is  destined  to  make  government 
by  "  general  consent,"  or,  as  they  called  it  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  "  one  accord,"  a  more  practicable  thing 
than  government  by  edict  and  emissary,  rescript  and 
concordat. 

I  speak  of  what  is  far  away  ;  but  meanwhile,  and 
pending  time's  answer  —  nay,  lot  us  rather  say  God's 
answer  —  to  the  appeal  of  the  Protestant  peoples  for 
a  fair  hearing  in  council  assembled,  surely  our  best 
interpreter,  alike  of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  current 
events,  is  that  communis  sensus  of  the  Church  Uni- 


36 


A  XATIOXAL  CHURCH. 


versal  which  somehow  we  contrive  to  get  at,  if  only 
we  are  patient,  and  from  which  there  is  seldom,  if 
ever,  any  going  back.  One  of  the  oldest  of  Greek 
proverbs  says  that  "  the  half  is  greater  than  the 
whole."  "Would  you  be  a  good  Catholic  ?  Be  a  good 
Nationalist  first.    The  rest  will  come  in  time. 


II. 

PKACTIBILITY. 


n. 


PRACTICABILITY. 

From  the  philosophical,  we  pass  to  the  practical 
aspects  of  national  churchmanship,  as  these  disclose  ^ 
themselves  in  our  own  land. 

The  moment  we  do  this,  we  are  confronted  by  a 
startling  spectacle,  —  a  vision  which  seems  to  negative 
all  hope  ;  which  looks  to  be,  so  far  as  any  prospect  of 
unity  is  concerned,  a  veritable  apocalypse  of  despair. 
I  know  of  no  book  which  an  intelligent  American 
who  is  both  a  lover  of  his  country  and  a  believer  in 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  under  a  more  solemn 
obligation  to  study  than  that  volume  of  the  United 
States  Census  of  1890  which  deals  with  the  statistics 
of  religion.^  Aside  from  all  ecclesiastical  interests, 
the  work  is  worthy  of  attention  on  its  own  merits. 
Merely  as  a  sociological  achievement,  it  ranks  with 
such  monumental  achievements  as  Charles  Booth's 
Enquiry  into  the  Industrial  Condition  of  the  London 
Poor. 

Whether  as  respects  ingenuity  of  method,  fairness 
of  treatment,  or  thoroughness  of  detail.  Dr.  Carroll's 

^  Conveniently  summarized  in  The  Relujious  Forces  of  the  United 
States.  By  H.  K.  (,'arroll,  LL.IX,  in  charge  of  tho  Division  of  Churches, 
Eleventh  Census.    New  York  :  .The  Christian  Literature  Co. 


40 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


conduct  of  the  exceedingly  delicate  task  intrusted  to 
him  has  been  beyond  praise.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
in  any  language  there  exists  a  conspectus  of  the 
religious  statistics  of  a  people  so  complete  as  that 
which  he  and  his  able  helpers  have  succeeded  in 
putting  before  us.  In  English  there  is  nothing  that 
approaches  it.  Not  only  are  the  figures  with  respect  to 
denominational  strength  marshalled  and  re-marshalled 
in  almost  all  possible  combinations ;  not  only  are  we 
told  all  there  is  to  be  known  as  to  number  of  com- 
municants, number  of  clergy,  number  of  church  edi- 
fices, value  of  property,  and  the  like ;  but  by  a  most 
suggestive,  I  had  almost  said  amusing,  employment  of 
graphic  symbols,  the  condition  of  things,  both  in  the 
Union  as  a  whole  and  in  the  separate  States,  is  made 
vividly  evident  to  the  eye.  We  look,  for  instance,  at 
a  circle  entitled  Maryland  (I  choose  my  example  at 
random),  and  we  find  it  divided  by  radii  into  eight 
sectors,  each  with  a  color  of  its  own,  and  variously 
named  as  follows  :  "  Catholic,"  "  Methodist,"  "  Lu- 
theran," "  Episcopalian,"  "  Baptist,"  "  Presbyterian," 
"  Reformed,"  "  All  Other,"  —  the  "  All  Other  "  sector 
being  in  the  case  of  this  particular  State,  Maryland, 
about  one-thirteenth  portion  of  the  whole  area  of  the 
circle,  wliile  the  Catholic  and  the  Methodist  sectors 
cover,  each  of  them,  about  one-third  of  the  space  en- 
closed. If,  again,  we  take  the  case  of  Ohio,  we  see  the 
circle  divided  into  nine  sectors,  entitled  respectively : 
"Catholic,"  "Methodist,"  "Presbyterian,"  "Lu- 
theran," "  Baptist,"  "  Disciples  of  Christ,"  "  United 


PRACTICABILITY. 


41 


Brethren,"  "  Reformed,"  "  All  Other."  In  this  circle 
the  "  Catholic  "  sector  covers  one-quarter  of  the  area, 
instead  of  one-third  as  in  the  case  of  Maryland ;  the 
"  Methodist "  sector  suffers  similar  shrinkage  ;  the 
"Baptist"  sector  (and,  by  the  way,  how  admirably 
this  word  "  sector "  seems  to  harmonize  with  the 
whole  business ! )  remains  about  what  it  was  in  the 
older  State,  while  the  "  Episcopalian "  sector  suffers 
the  mortification  of  being  merged  in  the  sad  promis- 
cuity of  the  quadrant  known  as  "  All  Other."  If,  now, 
we  pass  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  go  down  into  the 
Gulf  States,  we  find  in  the  case  of  Georgia  a  circle 
with  only  three  sectors,  respectively  entitled  "  Bap- 
tist," "  Methodist,"  and  "  All  Other."  This  is  balanced, 
and  more  than  balanced,  at  the  far  West,  by  New 
Mexico,  where  the  "  All  Other  "  sector  covers  only  one- 
fourteenth  portion  of  the  area,  the  entire  remainder 
of  the  circle  being  marked  "  Catholic." 

Among  the  most  interesting  circles  by  way  of 
suggestion  and  reminiscence  are  Massachusetts  and 
Virginia ;  Massachusetts,  the  Puritan  Commonwealth, 
showing  a  space  of  two-thirds  marked  "  Catholic,"  and 
another  of  one-tenth  marked  "  Congregationalist ; " 
while  in  the  home  of  the  Cavaliers  we  have  one  full 
half  "  Baptist,"  one  full  quarter  "  Methodist,"  and  a 
little  less  than  one-twentieth  "  Episcopalian."  If,  last 
of  all,  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  great  circle  which 
represents  the  entire  Republic,  we  note  that  the 
"  Catholic "  sector  covers  a  little  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  whole  area,  the  "Methodist"  a  little 


42 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


more  than  one-fourth,  the  "  Baptist  "  something  less 
than  one-fifth,  the  "  Presbyterian  "  about  one-fifteenth, 
and  the  "  Protestant  Episcopalian "  almost  exactly 
one  thirty-nintli. 

But  this  is  a  cheerful  showing  for  unity  compared 
with  what  we  have  to  face  when  we  turn  from  the 
graphic  method  of  circles  to  the  numerical  method  of 
tables.  In  the  device  of  the  circle  all  kinds  of  Pres- 
byterians are  massed  in  a  single  sector,  and  all  kinds 
of  Methodists  in  another  single  sector,  and  all  kinds 
of  Baptists  in  another  single  sector  ;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact  there  are  twelve  different  denominations  of  Pres- 
byterians, thirteen  varieties  of  Baptists,  and  seventeen 
sorts  of  Methodists. 

In  the  case  of  the  circles,  the  cumulative  in  contrast 
with  the  particularist  method  was  forced  upon  Dr. 
Carroll  by  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  ;  for  had  he 
undertaken  to  intersect  the  sectors  by  radii  numei'ous 
enough  to  represent  all  of  tliese  distinctions,  and  the 
sub-dichotomies  covered  by  the  vague  phrase  "  All 
Other"  as  well,  the  eye  of  the  student  would  have 
been  hopelessly  confused  and  the  intent  of  the  graphic 
device  defeated.  Moreover,  in  the  matter  of  tints  and 
shading,  chromo-lithography  would  have  been  utterly 
unequal  to  the  task. 

But  let  us  face  the  worst  at  once.  The  tables  show 
that  there  are  in  the  United  States  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  distinct  religious  denominations.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  this  generous  figure  includes 
Jews,  Thcosophists,  Etliical  Culturists,  and  some  thirty 


PRACTICABILITY. 


43 


organizations  that  numbei"  fewer  than  one  thousand 
adherents  apiece.  Of  professedly  Christian  denomi- 
nations claiming,  severally,  upwards  of  ten  thousand 
members,  there  are  sLdy-th  rcc,  ranging  from  the  Roman 
Catholics  with  their  six  millions  to  the  Danish  Lu- 
therans with  their  ten  thousand  one  hundred  and 
eighty-one.  The  scandal  of  the  situation  is  somewhat 
further  relieved,  when  we  find,  as  we  do  find  if  we 
look  into  the  matter,  that  the  most  of  these  organiza- 
tions fall  easily  into  families,  the  bond  of  kinship 
being  either  a  common  doctrine  or  a  common  polity. 

If  we  classify  the  denominations  according  to  this 
afiinity-scheme,  as  we  may  call  it,  and  agree  to  recog- 
nize as  important  only  such  families  as  lay  claim  to  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  members,  we  shall  find  that  we 
have  reduced  the  number  of  our  varieties  to  ten,  which 
ten  comprise  almost,  if  not  quite,  nineteen-twentieths 
of  all  communicants,  of  whatever  name,  within  our 
borders. 

So,  then,  here  lies  the  practical  question  with  which 
we  have  to  grapple :  Is  there  discoverable  any  per- 
suasive or  conciliatory  method  of  bringing  these  ten 
types  of  Christian  life  and  thought,  these  ten  tribes 
as  we  may  call  them,  into  such  a  relation  with  one 
another,  that  as  Americans  we  may  look  forward  not 
merely  to  a  retention  of  our  common  Christianity,  but 
to  the  gradual  emergence  of  a  national  Church  really 
worthy  of  the  name  ?  At  first  we  are  disposed  to  say, 
"  No.  These  great  buildings  scare  us."  Great  build- 
ings always  do  have  a  tendency  to  enslave  the  imagi- 


44 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


nation.  And  yet,  I  confess,  I  can  think  of  no  loftier 
employment  for  the  ecclesiastical  mind,  nay,  for  the 
patriotic  mind,  of  the  coming  century  than  a  thorough 
study  of  this  question  would  afl'ord. 

Surely  the  time  has  come  for  a  turn  of  the  tide. 
The  recluetio  ad  absurdum  of  sectarianism,  as  a  philos- 
ophy of  Christianity,  is  complete.  It  has  been  wittily 
said  ^  that  the  Kansas  farmer  of  to-day,  when  the  crops 
fail,  instead  of  trying,  as  his  father  would  have  done, 
to  improve  the^uality  or  the  quantity  of  the  fertilizers, 
lets  his  hair  grow  long  and  starts  a  new  political  party  ; 
but  few  indeed  are  they  who,  with  our  present  light, 
would  dream  of  seeking  to  improve  the  ratio  of  wheat 
to  tares  in  our  American  harvest  field  by  organizing 
to-morrow  a  new  split.  As  a  people  we  have  ceased 
to  believe  any  longer  in  sectarianism  ;  but  the  task  of 
doing  away  with  the  thing,  now  that  it  has  been  saddled 
upon  us,  looms  so  large  as  almost  to  incapacitate  us 
for  effort.2  We  see  clearly  enough  that  this  jumble  of 
fragments  has  no  proper  claim  to  be  called  a  national 
Church,  and  yet  we  have  mournfully  to  confess  that, 
taken  in  its  entirety,  it  is  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
national  Church  that  wo  can  show. 

^  By  Professor  Peck,  of  Columbia  University. 

2  "  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  reason  why  many  minds  abandon 
the  doctrine  of  unity,  as  it  was  believed  by  Christendom  for  fifteen 
hundred  years,  is  that  they  are  at  a  loss  how  to  S(iuare  it  with  the  anoma- 
lies of  the  last  three  centuries.  But  for  the  unhap])y  rending  of  the 
"Western  Church,  no  man  would  have  any  more  dreamed  of  gainsaying 
the  mystery  of  the  visible  Churcli  than  of  the  visible  sacraments.  Men's 
minds  have  been  bribed  by  their  wishes,  or  perplexed  by  their  difficul- 
ties, into  lower  and  looser  conceptions  of  unity."  —  Manning's  Unity  of 
the  Church,  p.  302,  Am.  ed. 


PRACTICABILITY. 


45 


Almost  all  are  ready  to  admit  that  we  have  had  dis- 
integration enough,  and  that  what  we  want  now  is 
construction.  The  thing  that  takes  the  heart  out  of 
us  is  the  immensity  of  the  undertaking.  We  feel  as 
a  tribe  of  savages  might  feel  if  shown  the  "  Teutonic  " 
or  the  "  Campania,"  and  told  to  substitute  that  type 
of  boat  for  their  dug-outs  and  canoes.  And  yet  the 
ocean  liner  is  but  the  final  term  in  a  long  process  of 
evolution  from  the  dug-out.  With  God  all  things  are 
possible ;  and  with  man,  God  helping  him,  more  things 
are  possible  than  we  dare  dream. 

Weary  of  squabbles  over  tariffs  and  inter-state  com- 
merce acts,  we  need  in  this  country  the  inspiration  of 
some  splendid  purpose.  It  may  be  asked,  has  many 
times  been  asked,  will  often  be  asked  again :  What 
would  your  national  Church  accomplish,  supposing  it 
came  about,  which  the  present  conglomerate  of  sects 
cannot  already  do  for  us  fairly  well  ? 

For  an  answer  to  this  question  we  should  look  both 
abroad  and  at  home.  Briefly  put,  the  answer  is,  that 
abroad  we  should  be  saved  the  spectacle  of  half  a  dozen 
competing  divinity  schools  in  Tokyo  ;  and  that  at  home 
the  maintenance  of  religion  in  our  villages  and  towns 
would  cease  to  bo  dependent  on  the  uncertainties  of 
"  pink  teas  "  and  the  doubtful  aid  of  amateur  theatri- 
cals. When  dignity  wholly  disappears  from  the  ad- 
ministration of  religion,  reverence  presently  takes  wing. 
It  is  perfectly  possible  for  worship  to  be  dignified,  even 
in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth ;  it  is  not  possible  for 
dignity  to  coexist  with  a  scramble  ;  and  who  will  deny 


46 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


that  in  small  communities  where  every  man  and  every 
dollar  tells,  the  sectarian  principle,  from  its  very 
nature,  necessarily  entails  a  scramble.  Moreover, 
the  impression  made  upon  the  mind  of  the  young 
by  the  spectacle  of  a  splintered  Christianity  is  the 
reverse  of  favorable.  Accustomed  to  see  law  pre- 
senting itself  in  the  courts  with  a  united  front,  the 
young  man  learns  to  respect  law.  Were  there  as 
many  competing  temples  of  justice  in  an  American 
city  as  there  are  rival  temples  of  religion,  the  young 
man  would  be  as  quick  to  unlearn  civic  virtue  as  he  is 
now  disposed  to  throw  up  Christian  faith.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  impression  made  upon  my  mind  in 
early  life  by  my  first  sight  of  a  Roman  Catholic  vil- 
lage with  its  great  Church  overtopping  all  roofs. 
Visible  unity  inspires  respect,  visible  disintegration 
genders  contempt. 

The  Colonies  would  never  have  become  The  United 
States  had  the  patriots  of  that  day  reasoned  with 
respect  to  civil  nationality  after  the  fashion  in  which 
too  many  of  us  reason  about  ecclesiastical  nationality. 
Most  certainly,  after  having  lumped  together  a  republic 
in  Massachusetts,  a  democracy  in  Rhode  Island,  a 
monarchy  in  New  York,  and  an  aristocracy  in  New 
Jersey,  they  would  have  declined  to  call  the  resulting 
amorphous  mass  a  nation.  The  conveners  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  knew  too  much  for  that.  You  tell 
me  that  those  men  had  physical  force  at  their  disposal 
and  felt  no  scruple  about  using  it.  That  is  very  true ; 
but  it  does  not  annul  my  contention  that  the  unity 


PRACTICABILITY. 


47 


which  hopes  to  escape  ridicule  and   to  challenge 
respect  must  be  an  evident  and  palpable  thing,  not 
one  that  has  to  be  continually  explaining  away  ap- 
pearances that  make  it  seem  the  very  opposite  of  what 
it  claims  to  be.    A  national  Church  would  be,  if 
nothing  else,  a  great  evidence  of  religion. 
~~~ThB  child  who  in~a  New  England  village  of  two 
hundred  years  ago  saw,  or  in  a  South  German  village 
of  to-day  habitually  sees,  all  the  people  passing  on  the 
Lord's  Day  through  one  porch  into  the  Lord's  House, 
grew  up  and  grows  up  taking  religion  for  granted. 
The  American  child  of  the  present  generation  who 
sees  his  playmates,  on  six  days  of  the  week,  go  through 
the  one  school-house  door,  and  on  the  one  day  of  the 
week  sees  six  differently  labelled  church  doors  crying 
out  to  the  same  boys  and  girls  "  Come  in,"  inevitably 
conceives  of  religion  as  a  matter  in  debate.    "  When 
I  grow  up,"  he  says  to  himself,  "  I  will  find  out  what 
all  this  means.    Somehow  it  looks  as  if  our  fathers 
and  mothers  did  not  feel  about  praying  as  they  do 
about  schooling."    Yes,  these  things  tell.  Doubtless 
in  the  triumvirate  of  evil,  the  world  and  the  flesh  are 
the  predominant  partners  as  respects  the  number  of 
souls  enticed  away  fro'n  God ;  but,  in  any  fair  reck- 
oning, the  third  member  of  the  group,  the  devil  of 
division,  should  liavc  his  due. 

Js  it  then  my  hope,  you  ask,  that  at  some  future 
census,  say  two  hundred  years  from  now  (a  short  time 
in  the  life  of  the  Christian  Cliurch),  the  groat  circle 
which  will  then  probably  be  named  North  America 


48 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


may  shoT7  the  same  unbroken  disc  of  color  that  in  the 
Census  of  1890  distinguishes  New  Mexico  ?  I  will 
not  resent  being  shoved  into  this  corner,  but  will  boldly 
venture  to  answer,  Yes,  I  do.  For  however  strenu- 
ously I  may  disbelieve  in  the  method  by  which  eccle- 
siastical unity  has  been  secured  in  New  Mexico,  I  do 
not  see  how  I  can  disparage  the  thing  itself  without 
by  the  same  token  censuring  the  Founder  of  the  Church. 
New  Mexico  may  be,  and  in  my  judgment  is,  most 
unfortunate  in  its  type  of  Christianity,  but  in  so  far 
as  it  is  at  one  with  respect  to  what  it  has.  New  Mexico 
is  to  be  congratulated. 

Consider  the  characteristics,  the  notes,  of  a  possible 
national  Church  of  the  United  States.  Such  a  struc- 
ture would,  first  of  all,  possess  as  a  matter  of  course, 
a  basis  of  dogma.  This  foundation  would  be  built, 
however,  not  of  small  bricks,  but  rather  of  huge,  rough- 
hewn  blocks  of  the  sort  that  can  be  counted  upon  to 
stay  put  without  cement ;  solid  masses  of  fact,  that  is 
to  say,  as  distinguished  from  speculation  ;  basaltic 
rock  which  critics  and  controversialists  might  chip 
away  at,  as  long  as  they  pleased,  without  any  very 
serious  results.  The  primitive  Creeds,  the  Apostles' 
and  the  Nicene,  answer  fairly  well  to  this  description. 
To  be  sure,  they  are  deficient  in  "  anthropology,"  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  they 
are  running  over  with  "  Christ  his  lore."  Not  that 
I  would  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  great  fabrics 
of  theological  thought  which  solitary  thinkers  like 
Aquinas  and  Calvin  or  grave  assemblies  of  learned 


PRACTICABILITY. 


49 


men  have,  in  former  or  in  recent  times,  framed  and 
lifted.  It  is  far  easier  to  sneer  at  such  architects  than 
it  is  to  rival  their  architecture.  But  the  truth  is,  we 
need  have  no  fear  at  all  that  the  Church  will  ever 
lack  for  labored  explanations  of  the  full  purport  of 
the  Christian  revelation.  That  more  treasures  of 
knowledge  are  wrapped  up,  undiscovered,  in  the  arti- 
cles of  the  Creed  than  have  ever  yet  been  dug  out  of 
them,  is  certain.  To  lay  an  interdict  upon  the  search 
after  this  hidden  wealth  would  be  absurd ;  but,  for 
the  very  reason  that  this  search  is  going  on  contin- 
ually and  with  success,  a  national  Church  is  bound 
carefully  to  avoid  confusing  with  the  temporary  "  sys- 
tem "  the  everlasting  Faith.  The  fact  that  our  "  little 
systems,"  as  the  late  Laureate  contemptuously  called 
them,  "have  their  day  and  cease  to  be,"  is  no  evi- 
dence that  in  their  day,  and  before  they  ceased  to 
be,  they  were  not  of  considerable  worth.  The  "  sys- 
tems "  of  the  alchemists  were  as  much  more  elaborate 
than  the  systems  of  modern  chemistry  as  the  the- 
ology of  Anselm  is  more  intricate  than  the  theology 
of  Coleridge  ;  and  yet  it  is  doubtful  whether  without 
Paracelsus  and  Raymond  Lully  we  should  ever  have 
had  Faraday  and  Dumas.  The  really  urgent  question 
is.  What  is  the  special  need  of  our  day,  this  present, 
this  modern  day  that  we  are  living  through?  And 
to  that  inquiry  the  ancient  Creeds  make  answer  by 
simply  holding  up  before  our  eyes  the  person  Christ. 
So  much  for  theology ;  is  it  not  enough  ? 

And  what  of  ethics  ?  ^>Well,  ethics  is  a  form  of 


50 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


dogma,  and  would  be  sui-e  to  be  recognized  as  such 
if  men  could  only  be  persuaded  to  look  deep  enough. 
The  words  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  if  we  begin  to 
philosophize  about  them,  are  found  to  appeal  to  faith 
quite  as  strongly  as  the  words  "  God  is  One."  The 
fact  that  the  former  saying  is  cast  in  the  imperative 
mood  and  the  latter  in  the  indicative  mood  makes  no 
difference  ;  it  is  in  the  believing  mood  that  you  and 
I  receive  them.  Well,  then,  let  us  apply  the  same 
reasoning  to  ethics  that  we  applied  to  dogma.  A 
national  Church  must  have  an  ethical  Creed,  not  volu- 
minous, but  clearly  legible  ;  not  necessarily  a  code,  but 
most  assuredly  a  standard.  We  need  not  postulate  a 
national  Church  of  teetotallers,  for  instance ;  but  we 
might  as  well  have  no  Church  at  all  as  one  that  would 
admit  the  drunkard  to  its  privileges.  A  national 
Church  must  not  attempt  to  prove  itself  such  by  oblit- 
erating all  the  state-lines  of  morality.  It  must  not, 
in  a  good-natured  endeavor  to  be  all  things  to  all  men, 
forget  its  obligation  to  be  something  to  some  men. 
There  would  have  to  be  discipline,  not  minute,  indeed, 
but  real.  It  would  mean  a  definite  thing  to  be  in  full 
communion,  and  another  definite  thing  not  to  be  in 
full  communion,  with  the  Catholic  Church.  In  a  word, 
to  change  our  figure  of  speech,  as  St.  Paul  when  on 
this  subject  so  easily  does  his,  from  stone  and  mortar 
to  flesh  and  blood,  we  must  remember  that  the  mystical 
body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  though  mystical,  is  not 
invertebrate.  So  much  for  ethics.  Is  it  not  enough  ? 
Well,  and  what  of  polity?    First  of  all,  let  polity, 


PRACTICABILITY. 


51 


whatever  else  it  is,  be  frankly  American.  I  say  this 
in  no  Jingo  spirit.  I  loathe  and  detest  Jingoism  in 
all  its  varieties.  I  know  not  which  is  worse,  the  native 
or  the  foreign  brand ;  I  abhor  them  equally.  But  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  being  an  American.  I  should  not 
be  running  on  in  this  way  about  national  Churches  did 
I  not  believe  in  ray  heart  that  America,  sect-ridden  as 
it  is  thought  to  be,  offers  a  better  field  for  the  upbuild- 
ing of  a  Church  truly  national  than  any  other  country 
the  world  over.  Yes,  I  would  see  the  Church  Ameri- 
can in  its  length  and  breadth.  Some  people  are  so 
nervously  afraid  of  bigness.  "  Don't  let  us  allow  the 
thing  to  get  too  large,"  they  say,  "  lest  we  should  be 
unable  to  manage  it."  Manage  it  ?  And  shall  not 
God  have  care  for  his  elect  ?  "  Pray,"  said  the  Warden, 
or  Elder  (it  docs  not  matter  which)  of  an  old,  ancestral 
parish  somewhere  on  the  North  River,  to  the  young 
minister  who  was  about  starting  a  mission  Sunday- 
school,  "  Pray,  don't  introduce  a  novelty  of  this  sort. 
What  we 've  always  liad  up  here,  and  what  we  want  to 
continue  to  have,  is  a  nice,  snug  little  Zion  of  our  own." 
It  is  this  "  snug  little  Zion  "  idea  that  has  got  to  be 
torn  up  by  the  roots,  if  we  arc  ever  to  know  an  Ameri- 
can Catholic  Church.  The  English  ivy  is  a  beautiful 
plant,  and  nothing  is  one-half  so  becoming  to  church 
walls ;  but  unfortunately  the  English  ivy  does  not 
flourish  in  all  climates,  and  to  insist  that  it  shall  be 
"  ivy  or  nothing  "  in  a  land  where  the  woodbine  and 
other  fairly  presentable  vines  are  indigenous  is  a 
mistake. 


52 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


It  was  Mr.  Ruskin  who  said  that  he  would  not  visit 
America,  because  he  could  not  imagine  himself  con- 
tent to  live  three  months  in  a  country  where  there 
were  no  castles.  That  was  pardonable  enough  in  Mr. 
Ruskin,  but  does  his  having  said  it  lay  any  obligation 
on  you  and  me  to  try  to  make  good  our  country's 
deficiencies  by  reproducing  on  a  small  scale  Stirling 
or  Warwick  ?  No,  you  and  I  must  take  America  as 
we  find  it ;  comforting  ourselves  with  the  thought 
that  Time,  as  a  greater  than  Ruskin  puts  it,  has  a 
worthier  task  than  merely 

"  To  make  old  bareness  picturesque, 
Aud  tuft  with  grass  a  feudal  tower." 

Doubtless  Americanism  may  be  pushed  too  far. 
The  demand  for  a  distinctively  American  doctrine  of 
Church  unity  is  as  fatuous  as  the  demand  for  an 
American  poetry  and  an  American  sculpture.  Good 
poetry  and  good  sculpture  are.  what  they  are,  quite 
independently  of  national  lines.  And  so  with  Catho- 
licity ;  the  law  of  it  is  as  fixed  and  definite  as  are  the 
laws  of  light.  It  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  appli- 
cation of  the  law  that  Americanism  gets  a  standing 
in  the  court.  So  then,  by  all  means,  let  Anglican 
influences  and  Anglican  precedents  be  treated  with 
all  proper  respect,  it  is  but  just  and  right  that  so  it 
should  be ;  only  let  us  waste  no  room-rent  on  the 
fools'  paradise  of  those  who  fancy  that  American 
Christianity  in  its  entirety  can  be  Anglified.  This 
people  is  not  English,  though  we  owe  more  to  Eng- 


PRACTICABILITY. 


53 


land  than  to  all  other  countries  put  together ;  but 
this  people  is  not  English,  it  is  a  composite  people,  now 
in  the  course  of  being  kneaded,  as  a  woman  kneads 
the  materials  of  bread,  into  a  homogeneous  nationality. 
To  assume  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  pure  English 
stock  and  to  base  our  ecclesiastical  polity  upon  that 
notion,  is  to  invite  collapse.  The  foundations  of  an 
enduring  Catholicism  lie  deeper  down. 

Even  the  Church  of  England  is  not  national  in  the 
sense  of  comprising  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  of 
England.  It  is  justly  called  national,  in  that  it  was 
the  core  about  which  the  nation,  as  a  matter  of  his- 
torical fact,  grew  into  being.  It  is  national  in  that 
it  is  inwrought,  as  the  late  Lord  Selborne^  so  con- 
clusively proved,  not  by  the  mere  letter  of  a  statute, 
but  by  a  thousand  unnoticed  ties,  into  the  constitution 
of  the  realm.  But  no  one  alleges  that  it  has  the  sym- 
pathy or  can  command  the  allegiance  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole.  One  may  be  an  Englishman  and  a  loyal 
Englishman  without  being  an  Anglican.  Her  Majesty 
herself,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  is  a  Presbyterian  in 
Edinburgh.  And  if  the  American  people  is  far  from 
being  English,  still  farther  is  the  religious  portion  of 
the  American  people  from  being  Anglican.  We  must 
remember  this  in  all  our  reasonings  about  unity,  or 
we  shall  go  astray. 

But  there  is  another  feature  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land that  entitles  her  to  be  called  national  besides 

1  A  Defence  of  the  Church  of  England  against  Disestablishment,  by 
Roundell,  Earl  of  Selborue,  pp.  28-31. 


54 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


the  two  which  I  just  mentioued,  and  this  other  feature 
is  one  in  which  any  Church  that  in  any  country  as- 
pires to  become  national  must  resemble  her.  The 
Church  of  England  is  national,  because  she  lays  stress 
upon  territory  as  such,  and  counts  her  children  not 
yer  capita  merely,  but  also  in  connection  with  the 
soil  on  which  their  homes  are  built.  There  is  not  a 
square  league  of  England  which  is  not  within  the 
borders  of  some  one  or  another  parish.  This  is  the 
right  principle.  If  the  spiritual  interests  of  a  whole 
people  are  to  be  looked  after  systematically,  if  they 
are  to  be  shepherded  with  thoroughness,  thei'e  must 
be  a  recognition  of  metes  and  bounds.  The  names  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistles  are  evidence  that  he  looked  at  the 
matter  in  this  light.  He  did  not  write  out  his  theo- 
logical views  essay -fashion ;  what  he  had  to  say  he 
put  into  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  people  living  in  a 
particular  place  with  a  recognized  geographical  posi- 
tion. The  truth  taught  in  the  letter  may  have  been 
one  of  universal  interest;  he  may  even  have  been 
setting  forth,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Colossians,  a  cos- 
mical  theology  as  wide  as  the  universe ;  all  the  same, 
he  addresses  himself  to  "  the  saints  and  faithful  breth- 
ren in  Christ  which  are  at  Colosse,"  a  town  with  town 
limits,  a  definite  unit  among  the  units  which  in  their 
aggregate  make  up  the  Empire. 

I  am  assuming,  of  course,  that  the  territory  in 
question  is  both  habitable  and  inhabited.  Preten- 
tious paper-schemes  which  cover  deserts  and  proclaim 
jurisdiction  over  wildernesses  richly  deserve  the  rid- 


PRACTICABILITY. 


55 


icule  they  receive.  But  where  a  territory  has  a  popu- 
lation, the  Christian  Church  should  aim  at  dealing 
with  that  population  territorially,  holding  some  person 
or  persons  answerable  for  the  spiritual  well-being  of 
all  souls  within  the  boundary  lines.  This  is  the  theory 
of  the  parish  system,  and  it  is  a  good  theory.  That 
it  is  nowhere  carried  out  to  perfection  is  no  argument 
against  it.  Even  the  fishermen  of  the  Gospel  were 
under  the  necessity  of  mending  their  nets  now  and 
again.  In  a  reticulation  that  covers  a  whole  country, 
some  meshes,  here  and  there,  are  bound  to  get  torn 
and  to  let  through  part  of  the  catch.  N. 


In  this  Republic,  the  obvious  territorial  units  oT 
structure  are  three  in  number,  —  the  Union  itself,  the 
State,  and  the  County.  It  is  true  that  a  certain  por- 
tion of  the  national  domain  has  not  yet  attained  to 
what,  in  our  political  parlance,  is  known  as  "  state- 
hood ; "  and  it  is  also  true  that  in  Louisiana  the  divi- 
sions elsewhere  known  as  counties  are  called  parishes. 
But  these  exceptions  are  not  of  a  sort  to  encumber  or 
embarrass  the  argument.  That  the  Territories  are 
destined,  first  or  last,  to  be  parcelled  out  into  States, 
is  generally  acknowledged ;  while,  as  for  Louisiana, 
the  fact  of  itSi  having  chosen  to  abide  by  the  old 
nomenclature  of  its  French  period  makes  no  real 
difference." 

Of  these  three  units,  the  Republic,  the  State,  and 
the  County,  the  county  is,  historically  speaking,  by 
far  the  most  ancient.  In  fact,  with  the  exception  of 
the  city,  there  is  perhaps  no  politico-geographical  unit 


56 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


that  can  show  an  older  lineage  than  the  county.  As 
its  name  indicates,  the  county  originally  made  the 
jurisdiction  of  a  comes,  or  count,  so  called  because  the 
"  companion  "  in  administration  of  the  still  higher  offi- 
cial to  whom  the  government  of  the  province  or  pre- 
fecture as  the  case  might  be,  had  been  intrusted. 
"  With  that  tendency  to  division  and  subdivision," 
says  a  recent  writer  ^  on  this  subject,  "  which  is  the 
mark  of  thorough  government,  the  provincial  empire, 
at  any  rate  in  Western  Europe,  gradually  assumed  the 
shape  of  a  mass  of  small  districts,  each  administrated 
by  its  own  comes.''''  From  continental  Europe  this 
county-system  passed  over  into  England,  and  from 
England  was  transmitted  to  America,  where  it  has 
proved  itself  so  well  adapted  to  our  civil  needs  as  to 
have  secured  what  is  practically  an  universal  accept- 
ance. It  should  be  observed,  in  passing,  that  organi- 
zation by  counties  includes  cities,  inasmuch  as  every 
city  is  either  by  itself  a  county,  or  else  is  a  constituent 
portion  of  some  county.  If,  therefore,  the  Christian 
Church  in  this  land  is  seeking  for  a  self-consistent, 
easily  understood  territorial  basis  of  organization,  it 
cannot  do  better  than  accept  for  such  a  purpose  the 
scheme  which  Americans  in  their  political  capacity 
have  already  fastened  upon  as  the  best ;  namely,  the 
Republic,  the  State,  and  the  County. 

But  what  form  shall  the  polity  take  on,  supposing 
the  territorial  scheme  to  have  been  adopted  ?  Do  not 
hastily  charge  me  with  Erastianism  if  I  invite  a  return 

1  Mr.  Edwaril  Jcuks. 


PRACTICABILITY. 


57 


to  the  Census  as  a  means  of  finding  light.  Upon  con- 
sulting such  of  the  tables  as  bear  upon  this  point  we 
make  the  cheerful  discovery  that,  as  respects  polity, 
there  is  among  our  Ten  Tribes  a  far  nearer  approach 
to  unanimity  than  one  who  had  been  contemplating 
exclusively  their  doctrinal  divergences  would  have  ex- 
pected to  find.  Ecclesiastical  polity  in  this  country, 
it  appears,  takes  on  one  or  other  of  three  forms,  ac- 
cording as  it  inclines  to  emphasize  the  principle  of 
home-rule,  the  principle  of  counsel  and  advice,  or 
the  principle  of  a  strong  executive. 

With  a  view  of  getting  out  of  the  rut,  I  use  these 
phrases  to  indicate,  respectively,  what  are  commonly 
known  as  Congregationalism,  Presbyterianismj  and 
Episcopacy.  We  will  waived  for  the  time  being, 
all  jure  divino  points,  and  look  at  the  whole  thing 
simply  as  a  question  of  method. 

The  Congregationalists  believe  with  all  their  heart 
in  a  method  which  makes  much  of  the  local  flock 
looked  after  by  the  local  shepherd.  This,  they  say,  is 
the  true  unit,  this  group  of  souls,  large  enough  fully 
to  engage  the  energies  of  one  pastor,  and  not  too  large 
to  be  gathered  within  four  walls.  They  remind  us 
that  St.  Paul  speaks  of  being  burdened  with  the  care 
of  all  the  "  Churches,"  not  of  "  all  the  Church,"  and 
they  urge  that  when  he  does  speak  of  "  the  Church " 
in  the  singular  number,  what  he  has  in  mind  is  the 
choir  invisible  of  faithful  souls  rather  than  any  hard- 
and-fast  general  society  by  which  the  whole  earth  is  to 
be  overspread. 


58 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


The  Presbyterians  are  of  opinion  that  this  view  of 
the  matter  is  too  loose.  They  deprecate  the  isolation 
of  the  single  flock.  They  favor  consultation  among 
the  shepherds,  and  more  concert  of  action  in  the 
matter  of  tending  and  feeding  the  sheep ;  for  after  all 
the  flock  is  one  ;  —  that  various  reading  about  "  tlie 
fold  "  in  St.  John's  tenth  chapter  does  not  really  work 
any  serious  amendment  of  Christ's  parable :  th^  flock 
is  one ;  we  are  his  people  and  the  sheep  of  his  pasture. 

The  Episcopalians  urge,  with  a  good  deal  of  insis- 
tency, the  value  of  headship  in  everything  that  has  the 
character  of  an  enterprise.  Jesus  Christ,  they  argue, 
has  essayed  the  spii-itual  conquest  of  the  world.  The 
task  which  He  has  laid  upon  his  followers  is  a  militant 
task.  He  sanctioned  leadership  when  He  enrolled  the 
Twelve  and  placed  Himself  at  their  head.  He  sanc- 
tioned it  again,  and  for  all  time,  when  after  his  re- 
surrection He  said  of  these  same  companions  of  his 
who  had  known  his  mind  and  become  sharers  of  his 
purpose,  "  Go.  Preach.  Absolve.  Baptize."  That 
the  Episcopalians  would  be  found  so  arguing,  their 
very  name  might  have  forewarned  us.  Episcopacy 
is  nothing  if  not  executive,  a  bishop  meaningless 
save  as  a  leader. 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  Census  Tables  with  a  view  to 
finding  how  the  religious  mind  of  America  stands 
affected  towards  these  various  principles  of  polity,  we 
discover  that  of  the  twenty  millions  of  communicants 
(I  speak  in  round  numbers)  nearly  six  millions  arc  for 
home-rule,  something  more  than  three  millions  for 


PRACTICABILITY. 


59 


reqognition  of  a  Church  universal  administered  by  the 
conciliar  method,  and  almost  twelve  millions  for  the 
leadership  principle  ;  in  other  words,  the  friends  of  a 
polity  of  oversight  outnumber  all  others  by  a  clear 
majority  of  well-nigh  three  millions,  —  a  striking  fact, 
but  one  that  is  robbed  of  much  of  its  apparent  signifi- 
cance when  we  are  told  that  under  this  head  have 
been  congregated  three  such  dissonant  and  apparently 
irreconcilable  elements  as  the  Roman  Catholics,  the 
Methodists,  and  the  Anglicans. 

In  quoting  these  comparative  statistics,  I  am  as  far 
as  possible  from  wishing  to  suggest  that  the  method 
of  arriving  at  a  conclusion  in  this  ^'matter  is  by  count 
of  heads  or  show  of  hands;  God  forbid.  Rather 
my  purpose  is  to  argue  that  since  each  one  of  tlie  three 
methods  has  so  many  adherents,  the  probability  is 
that  there  must  be  much  good  in  each ;  and  that  better 
tlian  tlie  victory  of  any  one  would  be  the  prevalence 
of  some  wise  combination  of  them  all.  Why  need  it 
be  thought  a  thing  impossible  that  in  the  course  of 
the  next  century  this  should  be  brought  to  pass  ? 

Imagine  a  county  Church.  The  centre  of  adminis- 
tration, is  the  county -town.  Here  dwells  the  chief 
pastor  of  the  Christians  of  the  county.  His  position, 
althougli  one  of  dignity,  is  not  one  of  splendor.  His 
duties  are  far  more  urgent  than  his  honors  are  con- 
spicuous, lie  is  simply  the  master-missionary  of  the 
region,  which,  although  large  enough  to  keep  him  busy, 
is  not  so  large  as  to  make  the  personal  care  of  souls  y 
impossible. 


60 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


From  time  to  time,  at  stated  intervals,  there  gather 
about  this  leader  his  counsellors,  clerical  and  lay. 
He  and  they  consult  together  for  the  good  of  religion 
in  the  county,  talk  over  the  spiritual  needs  of  the 
various  towns  and  villages,  plan  anew  the  ever-shift- 
ing campaign,  and  make  provision  for  the  sinews  of 
war.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  all  the  nom- 
inal Christians  in  the  County  have  given  in  their  ad- 
hesion to  this  arrangement ;  for  the  purposes  of  our 
"  iridescent  dream  "  it  will  suffice  if  the  great  bulk  of 
them  have  done  so. 

Well,  then,  have  we  not  here  a  microcosm  of  the 
United  Church  ?  What  is  lacking  ?  Anything  ?  The 
home-rule  principle  has  justice  done  to  it ;  for  the  lo- 
cal Church  of  each  town,  each  village,  is,  as  respects 
the  management  of  its  affairs,  the  choice  of  its  pastor, 
the  handling  of  its  revenues,  autonomous.  The  syno- 
dal and  conciliar  principle  has  justice  done  to  it ;  for, 
instead  of  each  little  group  of  disciples  living  by  itself 
and  for  itself,  as  if  no  other  group  existed,  we  see  the 
representatives  of  the  groups  coming  together  once  a 
year,  or  as  much  oftener  as  may  be  found  desirable, 
to  exchange  ideas,  and  incite  one  another  to  better 
things.  The  principle  of  leadership  has  justice  done 
to  it ;  for,  convinced  that  what  is  everybody's  business 
is  nobody's  business,  the  Christian  people  of  the 
County  have  seated  at  the  heart  of  things  one  whom 
they  hold  in  a  special  sense  responsible  for  the  effi- 
cient conduct  of  their  affairs.  What  is  there  inhe- 
rently absurd  or  chimerical  in  such  a  picture  as  this  ? 


PRACTICABILITY. 


61 


The  very  same  three  principles  work  together  happily 
enough  in  civil  polity ;  what  is  to  prevent  their  doing 
so  in  ecclesiastical  polity  ? 

Take  a  step  further.  Imagine  the  overseers  of  the 
various  counties,  together  with  representative  pastors 
and  representative  laymen  from  each  county,  meeting 
together  once  in  three  years,  or  oftener  if  necessary, 
in  the  capital  city  of  the  State.  There  are  religious 
interests  that  people  have  in  common  as  citizens  of 
the  same  State  other  and  larger  than  those  which 
they  share  as  dwellers  in  the  same  county ;  such  in- 
terests, for  example,  as  those  that  pertain  to  marriage 
and  divorce,  the  education  of  the  young,  and  the  ten- 
ure of  Church  property.  The  presidency  of  this  larger 
Council  would  naturally  fall  to  one  of  the  county  ovci'- 
seers,  either  because  of  his  seniority  in  office,  or  be- 
cause of  the  relative  importance  of  the  town  or  city 
which  might  happen  to  be  the  centre  of  his  activities. 
Again,  what  is  there  intrinsically  absurd  or  chimerical 
in  this  picture  of  a  council  representative  of  the  reli- 
gion of  a  whole  State  ?  Is  any  violence  done  to  the 
principle  of  home-rule  ?  Are  not  the  value  of  con- 
ference and  the  importance  of  headship  as  fully  recog- 
nized in  this  instance  as  in  the  other  ? 

Take  one  more  step.  Imagine  a  bi-cameral  assem- 
bly convraed,  we  will  say,  once  in  nine  or  ten  years, 
and  representative  of  all  the  States  of  the  Union,  the 
smaller  of  the  two  Houses  made  up  of  representative 
chief  pastors,  one,  or  at  most  two,  for  each  State ; 
and  the  larger  composed  of  pastors  and  laymen  in 


62 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


numbers  proportionate  to  the  populations  of  the  States 
from  which  they  come. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  State  Council,  the  presidency 
of  this  national  body  might  be  determined  either  by 
seniority  or  by  such  other  consideration  as  experience 
should  show  to  be  the  most  urgent.  Neither  of  the 
two  Houses  composing  the  National  Council  would  be 
so  large  as  to  be  cumbersome,  for  the  number  of  our 
States  is  not  likely  ever  to  exceed  one  hundred ;  and 
with  the  two  branches  of  a  bi-cameral  legislature 
standing  to  each  other  in  the  ratio  of  one  hundred  to 
three  hundred,  no  serious  difficulties  of  procedure 
would  emerge. 

There  remains  to  be  considered  the  question  of 
worship.  As  there  are  three  leading  types  of  polity, 
so  are  there  three  marked  varieties  of  divine  ser- 
vice ;  to  wit,  the  unliturgical,  the  elaborately  liturgical, 
and  what  may  be  called  the  intermediate  variety. 
What  are  we  to  do  with  these  in  the  interest  of  Amer- 
ican Catholicity  ?  Abolish  two  out  of  the  three  ? 
That  would  be  rather  an  arduous  undertaking.  Jum- 
ble all  three  of  them  together,  making  a  quartum 
quid,  the  like  of  which  never  was  seen  before  ?  That 
would  seem  to  be  an  endeavor  less  promising  still. 
But  what  is  there  foolish  in  the  suggestion  that  a 
single  building,  by  the  simple  device  of  a  ^ipater  fre- 
quency in  the  hours  of  service  than  is  common  among 
Protestants,  might  be  made  to  meet  the  devotional 
needs  alike  of  those  who  love  a  formal  and  of  those 
who  prefer,  I  will  not  say  an  informal,  but  a  less 


PRACTICABILITY. 


63 


formal  method  of  publicly  worshipping  Almighty- 
God  ?  The  Koman  Church  recognizes  and  acts  upon 
a  similar  principle  in  its  classification  of  Masses  into 
Low  Masses  and  High  Masses.  It  is  incumbent  upon 
every  good  Romanist  that  he  go  to  Mass,  and  he  neg- 
lects the  duty  at  the  peril  of  his  soul ;  but  it  is  not 
exacted  of  him  that  he  attend  High  Mass  if  he  prefers 
Low.  The  English  Church  scores  a  good  point  against 
the  Roman  by  insisting,  as  it  does,  upon  having  the 
public  services  rendered  in  "  a  tongue  understanded 
of  the  people  ;  "  but  the  Roman  Church  scores  a  good 
point  against  the  English  in  providing  that  within 
the  walls  of  one  and  the  same  consecrated  building 
widely  different  types  of  service  shall  at  different 
hours  find  recognition. 

It  is  true  that  I  am  pleading  for  a  larger  applica- 
tion of  this  principle  than  the  Roman  Church  allows, 
since  there  is  undoubtedly  a  wider  gulf  between  the 
non-liturgical  and  the  liturgical  celebration  of  the 
divine  mysteries  than  between  High  Mass  and  Low 
Mass;  but  even  if  the  people  of  an  American  town 
felt  tliat  they  must  needs  "  build  three  tabernacles," 
so  that  each  type  of  worship  might  have  its  own  sep- 
arate and  distinctive  home,  there  would  still  be  fewer 
competing  altars  in  that  town  by  some  six  or  seven 
than  there  are  to-day.  There  may  be,  there  probably 
are,  Anglicans  and  Roman  Catholics  among  us  san- 
guine enough  to  suppose  that  the  rising  tide  of  litur- 
gical interest,  so  noticeable  in  the  religious  life  of 
America  just  now,  is  destined  to  continue  rising  until 


64 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


it  shall  have  swept  everything  before  it.  "Be  pa- 
tient," they  say.  "  Much  has  been  accomplished ; 
more  is  coming.  Wait  a  little,  and  presently  you 
shall  hear  all  American  Christians  singing  their 
prayers  on  one  note."  I  doubt  it.  We  Americans 
are  not  all  of  us  musical,  and  the  unmusical  ones  are 
likely,  in  "this  free  country,"  to  go  on  saying,  in- 
stead of  singing,  their  prayers  to  the  end  of  the  chap- 
ter. At  the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  worship  had 
become  a  fine  art.  Let  it  be  practised  as  a  fine  art 
still  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  edified  thereby ; 
but  let  us  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  there  are  artisans 
in  the  world  as  well  as  artists,  and  not  stupidly  attempt 
to  force  a  high  aesthetic  standard  upon  souls  not  yet 
cultivated  to  the  point  of  being  able  to  apprehend  it. 
The  impact  of  Protestant  thought  upon  the  institute 
of  worship  may  not,  it  is  ti'ue,  have  produced  all  the 
effect  that  was  anticipated ;  but  it  is  unlikely  that 
it  will  prove  to  have  been  wholly  resultless.  Some 
things  have  been  learned  that  will  not  be  unlearned, 
some  franchises  secured  that  will  not  be  relinquished. 

If  liturgical  worship  really  does  possess  that  su- 
preme excellence  which  many  of  us  associate  with 
it,  we  may  safely  trust  to  the  workings  of  the  law  of 
natural  selection  to  bring  things  out  right  in  the  end. 

It  may  be  objected  to  what  I  have  been  recom- 
mending, that  to  carry  it  out  would  complicate  mat- 
ters, and  rob  us  of  that  simplicity  which  is  one  of 
religion's  chicfcst  charms.  But  let  us  not  suffer  our- 
selves to  be  beguiled  by  words.    Doubtless  simplicity 


PRACTICABILITY. 


65 


is  of  the  very  highest  value,  where  it  may  be  had. 
We  marvel  at,  and  are  often  disposed  to  covet,  the 
simplicity  of  apostolic  days.  The  Lady  Ecclesia  of 
that  era  made  out  to  live  and  thrive,  yes,  and  show  a 
very  fair  and  comely  countenance,  amid  surroundings 
of  a  most  unelaborate  sort.  Just  as  the  queen,  born 
a  peasant  girl,  whom  some  King  Cophetua  had  loved 
and  wedded,  might  look  back  half  sorrowfully  from 
her  throne-room  in  the  palace  with  its  weight  of  em- 
broidered hangings,  its  wealth  of  gems  and  gold,  to 
the  old  days  when  she  walked  barefoot,  pitcher  in 
hand,  along  the  grassy  path  that  led  from  the  cottage 
to  the  spring,  so  it  is  not  unnatural  for  the  modern 
Church,  with  all  its  inherited  tx'easures,  its  great  bur- 
den of  memories,  traditions,  usages,  its  councils  and 
canons,  its  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence  and  ecclcsio- 
logical  wealth,  to  look  back,  now  and  then,  with  some- 
thing like  regret  to  those  crisp  morning  hours  when 
it  was  enough  that  there  should  be  an  upper  room  to 
meet  in,  a  little  bread  and  wine,  a  "  hymn  to  Christ 
as  God,"  and  a  few  [)rayers.  But  to  a  great  extent 
wc  must,  in  matters  where  evolution  has  had  play, 
take  things  as  we  find  them.  Growths  that  have 
come  to  maturity  cannot  be  spirited  out  of  existence 
at  a  word.  It  is  folly  to  suppose  that  the  so-called 
simplicity  of  the  sceding-time,  a  simplicity  even  at 
that  stage  of  affairs  more  apparent  than  real,  can 
be  reinstated  at  will,  or  be  depended  upon  to  repro- 
duce itself  if  only  wc  can  muster  courage  enough  to 
cut  down  the  existing  tree.    The  cloud-giant  of  the 


66 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


Arabian  tale  was  with  difficulty  coaxed  back  into  his 
casket ;  vastly  more  formidable  would  be  the  task  of 
compelling  an  oak  to  retire  into  an  acorn.  In  a  so- 
ciety which  undertakes  to  embrace  within  its  limits 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  to  meet  the 
spiritual  needs  of  every  one  of  them,  we  must  expect 
the  administration  of  worship  to  prove  itself  a  some- 
what complex  undertaking,  and  must  not  be  dis- 
couraged at  finding  it  necessary  to  tolerate,  within 
the  same  ecclesiastical  bounds,  rites  and  usages  strik- 
ingly diverse.  Why  should  it  be  for  me  any  greater 
hardship  to  dwell  in  the  same  Church  with  a  man  who 
dotes  upon  candles  and  incense,  than  to  dwell  in  the 
same  town  with  him  ?  It  is  I  who  have  to  be  "  toler- 
ated "  as  well  as  he. 

We  have  now  come  into  possession  of  three  watch- 
words of  unity.  In  the  field  of  Dogma,  theological 
and  ethical,  the  watchword  is  Condensation ;  in  the 
field  of  Polity,  the  watchword  is  Co-ordination  ;  in  the 
field  of  Worship,  the  watchword  is  Classification. 

It  will  be  said,  and  with  much  show  of  reason,  that 
I  have  managed  to  get  over  the  ground  by  jumping 
the  pitfalls.  But  really  it  has  been  no  part  of  my 
purpose  to  dodge  the  difficulties  of  the  subject.  I  own 
to  having  made  as  sanguine  a  showing  as  I  could  ;  but 
that  has  been  because  I  believe  in  the  practice  of  hope, 
as  a  Christian  virtue,  and  because  I  refuse  to  believe 
that  the  clearly  defined  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ  is  des- 
tined to  suifer  defeat. 

That  in  each  one  of  the  three  fields  we  have  been 


PRACTICABILITY. 


67 


traversing  there  stands  a  crux^  I  have  no  desire  to 
deny. 

In  the  region  of  dogma,  the  crux  is  the  sacramental 
theology.^  Unless  the  philosophy  of  grace  can  be 
declared  neutral  ground,  and  honestly  dealt  with  as 
such,  there  is  no  hope  for  Christian  unity,  either  in 
the  near  future  or  in  the  far. 

In  the  region  of  polity,  the  crux  is  the  value  of 
historicity  in  connection  with  Holy  Orders.  Unless 
those  who  care  nothing  for  the  continuity  of  the 
sacred  ministry  can  persuade  themselves  that  it  is 
worth  while  to  conserve  that  continuity  for  the  sake 
of  those  who  do  care  very  much  about  it,  there  is  no 
hope  for  Christian  unity  either  in  the  near  futui'e  or 
in  the  far. 

In  the  region  of  worship,  the  crux  is  again  the  sacra- 
mental element.  Unless  those  ■who  believe  and  those 
who  do  not  believe  in  such  a  mystical  presenc©  of 
Christ  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  as  differences  that  ser- 
vice intrinsically  from  all  other  exercises  of  worship, 
can  be  persuaded  to  bear  with  each  other's  ways  in 
practice,  there  is  no  hope  for  Christian  unity  either 
in  the  near  future  or  in  the  far,  and  our  vision  of  a 
national  Church  is  but  a  will-o-the-wisp. 

It  all  turns  upon  whether  the  Tory,  mystical,  ro- 
manticist disposition  which  loves  to  take  its  light 
through  stained  glass,  and  the  Whig,  non-mystical, 
common-sense  disposition  which  thinks  to  save  the 
world  by  founding  Useful  Knowledge  Societies  can 

1  See  Appendix  A. 


68  A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

live  together  peaceably  in  the  same  house.  The  thing 
would  seem  to  be  impossible  ;  —  and  yet  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  and  the  Book  of  Psalms  rub  shoulders  in 
the  one  Bible ;  and  the  Christ  of  the  Synoptists  and 
the  Christ  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  are  one  Christ. 

At  any  rate,  I  beseech  you  to  acquit  me  of  the 
slightest  desire  to  minimize  these  difficulties.  They 
are  not  to  be  disposed  of  by  an  airy  wave  of  the  hand, 
or  conjured  away  by  the  magic  of  a  few  glib  sen- 
tences. They  lie  deep ;  they  are  triple-walled ;  they 
frown.  If  I  have  shunned  discussing  them  in  detail, 
it  has  not  been  from  any  lack  of  appreciation  of  their 
magnitude,  but  simply  because  of  a  conviction  that 
my  time  might  be  better  bestowed  upon  obstacles 
which  could  be  shown  to  be  removable.  In  the 
enchanted  forest  that  surrounds  the  palace  where 
the  sleeping  princess  lies,  there  is  much  wood-cut- 
ting of  a  manageable  sort  to  be  done  before  we 
reach  the  densest  thicket  of  all.  For  the  present, 
those  students  of  the  subject  do  most  to  help  for- 
ward national  churchmanship  who  concenti'ate  their 
strength  on  the  task  of  finding  where  the  line  runs 
between  the  difficulties  which  are  imaginary  and  the 
difficulties  which  are  real.  In  the  minds  of  most 
persons  the  two  sorts  of  barriers  loom  equally  large. 
To  teach  men  to  discriminate  is  to  help  them  on 
their  way.  Stuffed  lions  and  live  lions  at  a  little 
distance  look  alike,  but  they  arc  not  equally  to  bo 
feared. 

I  have  spoken  throughout  from  the  view-point  of  a 


PRACTICABILITY. 


69 


member  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  There  are  hope- 
ful signs,  not  a  few,  that  that  body  is  beginning  to 
discern  the  pettiness  of  its  old  denominationalism, 
and  is  awaking  to  a  sense  of  what  true  catholicity 
demands.  It  is  no  longer  seriously  contended  that 
the  momentous  issues  of  national  churchmanship 
are  to  be  settled  by  ascertaining  which  discoverer 
first  sighted  land  on  what  is  now  the  territory  of 
the  United  States,  or  by  proving  that  the  first  baby 
christened  within  the  colonies  was  baptized  into  this 
faith  or  that.  It  has  come  to  be  discerned  that  the 
roots  of  the  question  strike  much  deeper  and  spread 
much  further. 

Moreover,  what  is  better  still,  kindliness  and  sym- 
pathy are  coming  to  the  fore  in  unexampled  pleni- 
tude. We  are  discovering  how  many  of  our  old 
alienations  wei-e  founded  upon  strifes  of  words  rather 
than  on  strifes  of  fact.  A  little  of  the  oil  of  glad- 
ness  goes  a  long  way  as  a  lubricant.  What  we  need 
now  is  to  get  near  each  other.  When  the  picket- 
guards  of  bivouacking  armies  find  themselves  within 
speaking  distance,  they  are  very  apt  to  acknowledge 
one  another  not  such  bad  fellows  after  all. 

Then,  again,  there  is  that  advice  of  St.  Paul's  about 
looking,  not  every  man  on  his  own  things,  but  every 
man  also  on  the  things  of  others.  Slowly  we  are 
learning  to  grow  mutually  appreciative.  Even  in 
the  case  of  that  widest,  deepest,  and  apparently  most 
hopeless  of  all  the  gulfs  that  yawn  across  Christen- 
dom, I  mean  that  which  sunders  Roman  Catholics 


70 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


from  Protestants,  when  we  consider  that  northern 
Europe  is  almost  wholly  of  the  one  complexion  and 
southern  Europe  almost  wholly  of  the  other,  there 
is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  a  partition  of  awards. 
It  does  seem  absurd,  upon  the  face  of  it,  docs  it  not? 
to  suppose  that  all  the  goodness  and  all  the  truth  are 
with  the  northern  nations,  and  all  the  badness  and 
all  the  error  with  the  southern  ones.^ 

Moreover,  it  behooves  all  of  us  to  be  modest.  The 
more  confident  a  man  is  of  the  soundness  of  his  posi- 
tion, the  less  need  has  he  to  bluster  about  it.  The 
Hebrew  people  in  the  times  before  Christ  had  the 
strongest  possible  grounds  for  ecclesiastical  self- 
confidence.  They  knew  themselves  to  be  in  a  true 
and  a  deep  sense  the  people  of  God;  theirs  were  the 
promises,  theirs  the  tables  of  the  Law,  theirs  the 
Scriptures  of  truth.  All  the  same,  when  some  of 
them  took  to  boasting  rather  noisily  about  it,  and  ex- 
claimed with  vexatious  iteration,  as  if  once  were  not 
enough,  "  The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the 
Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord  are  we,"  God  sent  his 
prophet  to  give  them  fair  warning  that  if  they  went  on 
talking  in  that  supercilious  way  He  would  quickly  put 
them  on  a  level,  in  the  matter  of  privilege,  with  the 
"  out-landers  "  whom  they  despised.  The  true  policy 
for  every  denomination  that  is  among  us  is  to  begin 
at  the  other  end,  and,  fi-ankly  recognizing  as  bona 
fide  members  of  Christ's  Holy  Church  Universal  all 
who  have  been  baptized  with  water  into  the  name  of 


1  See  Appendix  B. 


PRACTICABILITY. 


71 


the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to 
see  whether  it  cannot  modestly  contribute  something 
that  shall  help  this  sacramental  host  to  realize  in 
outward  form  and  shape  its  already  latent  oneness. 

The  Episcopal  Church  in  this  new  world  stands, 
at  the  present  moment,  at  the  parting  of  the  ways. 
After  a  century  of  infancy,  a  century  of  childhood, 
and  a  century  of  adolescence,  she  has  come  at  last 
to  her  majority,  and  reports  for  duty.  "  For  duty, " 
and  towards  whom  ?  Towards  all,  no  doubt,  whom 
her  voice  can  reach  or  her  hand  help,  but  in  a  special 
sense  towards  those  twenty  millions  of  believers  who 
among  our  sixty  or  seventy  millions  of  population 
have  with  their  own  mouth  and  consent  openly  ac- 
knowledged Christ.  Her  errand  to  these  is  the 
errand  of  the  reconciler  and  the  peacemaker. 

Leadership  is  what  is  wanted.  The  land  cries  out 
for  it, — wise,  sympathetic,  modest,  clear-eyed,  fear- 
less leadership.  Gladly,  in  the  present  temper  of 
our  American  Christendom,  gladly  would  this  leader- 
ship be  conceded  to  the  historic  Church  of  the 
English-speaking  peoples,  were  she  only  to  show  a 
willingness  to  meet  half-way  with  friendly  conces- 
sions and  just  acknowledgments  that  could  in  no 
wise  harm  her  claims,  those  who  read  the  same 
Bible,  honor  the  same  Sacraments,  and  love  the 
same  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Surely  an  American  Catholic  Church  worthy  of  the 
name  ought  to  have  some  goodlier  words  for  those 
whom  it  is  her  duty  to  gather  and  include,  than  the 


72 


A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 


cold,  hard,  stolid  iVb/i  possinmis  of  absolutism,  or 
the  sharp  apothegm,  This  people  which  knoweth  not 
the  rubrics  is  accursed. 

If  we  would  enlist  the  strong  minds,  the  warm 
hearts,  the  strenuous  souls  of  our  day  in  the  service 
of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  Church  of  Christ  must 
be  attractively  presented.  Her  grandeur  must  be 
appreciated,  the  wide  reach  of  her  comprehensive- 
ness displayed.  The  trouble  is  that  we  too  often 
identify  the  Church  of  God  with  all  manner  of  trifling 
details  that  are  no  part  of  its  essence,  and  then  lift 
up  hands  of  holy  horror  if  one  whom  we  are  trying 
to  win  retorts  contemptuously,  "  Is  that  the  society, 
that  the  spiritual  commonwealth,  that  the  fellowship 
of  souls,  in  behalf  of  which  you  would  have  me  work 
myself  up  into  a  fine  enthusiasm?  No,  I  have  better 
things  to  do;  loftier  aims  absorb  me,  and  larger 
hopes.    Build  your  little  city.    I  go  my  way." 

But  would  you  turn  this  haughty  critic's  slur  into 
a  humble  prayer  for  guidance?  Show  him  the  true 
picture  of  the  Church  of  God.  Let  him  see  the  length 
and  breadth  and  height  and  depth  of  it.  Open  his 
eyes  to  behold  that  innumerable  company  of  faithful 
men  who  even  now,  to-day,  in  all  climates,  under 
all  skies,  are  making  the  imitation  of  Christ  their 
persistent  aim.  When  the  Kingdom  is  thus  con- 
ceived of,  when  it  is  recognized  as  gathering  up  into 
itself  all  that  has  been  most  precious  in  the  past, 
and  all  that  makes  for  greater  si)iritual  achievement 
in  days  to  come,  we  cease  to  wonder  at  a  saying 


PRACTICABILITY. 


73 


attributed  to  one  of  the  worthies  of  the  primitive 
days,  "He  that  hath  God  for  his  Father  hath  the 
Church  for  his  Mother;"  for  this  ministration  to 
the  ideal  side  of  our  nature,  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  is  the  very  sort  of  mothering  we  want. 
We  are  tempted  to  grow  hard,  we  are  tempted  to 
grow  bitter,  we  are  tempted  to  grow  cynical;  for 
human  life,  as  we  see  it,  has  much  that  is  repellent 
to  show,  much  that  is  despicable,  much  that  is  sordid. 
Is  there,  we  ask,  can  there  be  any  hope  for  such  a 
world  as  this?  The  vision  of  the  city  that  is  at 
unity  with  itself  is  God's  reply.  For  that  it  is 
worth  one's  while  to  live.  For  that  some,  perad- 
venture,  might  even  dare  to  die. 


APPENDIX. 


"  Now  I  take  my  farewell  of  my  most  deare  brethren  of  the 
forrain  Churches  with  the  exhortation  of  most  holy  Augustine, 
If  you  will  live  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  hold  Charity,  love  Verity,  desire 
Unity,  that  you  may  come  to  Eternity.  To  the  God  of  heaven 
who  is  the  God  of  Peace ;  to  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  who  is 
the  Prince  of  Peace ;  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  Bond  of 
Peace,  be  Glory,  Honor,  and  Thanksgiving  for  ever  and 
ever.  Amen." 

Closing  Sentences  of  Bishop  Davenanfs 
Exhortation  to  Brotherly  Communioyi,  16^1, 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

CONCERNING  NEUTRALIZATION  OF  TERRI- 
TORY IN  THE  REGION  OF  SACRAMENTAL 
THEOLOGY.i 

It  is  written  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that,  as  the 
end  drew  near,  He  gathered  his  disciples  about 
Him  in  an  upper  room,  and  having  broken  bread 
with  the  words  "This  is  my  body,"  and  having 
blessed  wine  with  the  words  "This  is  my  blood  of 
the  new  covenant,"  He  gave  them  to  cat  and  to  drink, 
adding  the  injunction,  "This  do  in  remembrance  of 
Me. "  It  is  further  recorded  that  after  the  resurrec- 
tion, on  a  mountain  in  Galilee,  at  a  meeting  specially 
appointed,  and  so  given  an  emphasized  sanctity  and 
significance,  He  said  to  the  Eleven,  "Go  ye  there- 
fore, and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptiz- 
ing them  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  From  the  Book  of  Acts, 
our  first  chapter  of  Church  History,  we  learn  that  the 

1  Extract  from  a  Reinecko  Lecture  read  before  the  Faculty  and 
Studeuts  of  the  Theological  Semiuary  at  Alexandria,  Va. 


78 


APPENDIX, 


disciples  understood  this  commandment  to  involve 
the  use  of  the  element  of  water. 

It  thus  appears  that  to  his  Gospel,  which  might 
otherwise  have  been  understood  to  be  a  simple 
announcement  of  abstract  truth  with  respect  to  "  the 
idea  of  God  "  and  "  the  destiny  of  man,"  Jesus  Christ 
indissolubly  linked  two  outward  observances,  each 
of  which  necessitated  a  use  of  what  physicists 
and  chemists  know  as  matter.  A  spiritualist,  as 
Lucretius  would  have  judged  Him,  a  materialist,  as 
Plato  would  have  declared  Him,  the  Son  of  Man 
stood  up  in  full  face  of  both  philosophies,  and  said, 
"  I  pronounce  you  wedded.  Those  whom  God  hath 
joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder." 

The  opening  words  of  the  General  Confession  in 
the  Communion  Office  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  wherein  we  address  the  Almighty  as  the 
"Maker  of  all  things"  and  the  "Judge  of  all  men," 
suggest  that  God  sustains  a  close  and  real  relation 
to  two  worlds,  —  a  world  material  and  a  world 
spiritual,  —  and  that  in  a  deep  sense  (though  not  in 
Spinoza's  sense)  both  of  these  worlds  are  one  in 
Him.  It  is  true  that  in  the  order  of  the  phrases  a 
distinction  of  rank  is  recognized.  We  are  not  en- 
couraged to  infer  that  the  two  worlds  are  of  equal 
value  or  of  equal  dignity.  It  is  by  an  ascending 
climax  that  we  pass  from  the  Maker  of  "things"  to 
the  Father  and  the  Judge  of  "  men. "  But  what  is 
distinctly  asserted  with  respect  to  both  body  and 
spirit,  things  and  men,  is  this,  —  that  between  them 


APPENDIX. 


79 


there  lies  no  such  difference  as  necessarily  involves 
contrariety  or  schism ;  they  admit  of  harmonizing  if 
only  one  can  get  at  the  true  formula  of  their  har- 
mony ;  they  are  not  really  enemies,  they  are  friends. 
Alone  among  theists,  the  Christian  has  the  courage 
cordially  to  welcome  this  belief.  Partly  because 
Nature  has  always  been  the  stronghold  of  idolatry, 
and  partly  because  so  much  of  what  goes  on  in  Nature 
appears  to  militate  against  our  conceptions  of  the 
holiness  and  the  loving  kindness  of  God,  theists,  as 
such,  find  themselves  strongly  tempted  to  mark  a 
great  gulf  between  the  two  realms,  the  spiritual  and 
the  material,  and  to  plant  danger  signals  on  the 
hither  side. 

"  Are  God  and  Nature  then  at  strife, 
That  Natui'e  lends  such  evil  di'eams  ?  " 

asks  the  doubting  heart  in  In  Memoriam,  evidently 
disposed  to  think  that  so  it  must  be ;  and  even  such 
a  clear-headed  Christian  thinker  as  Coleridge  is  said 
to  have  defined  Nature  as  "the  devil  in  a  strait- 
jacket.  "  But  in  its  censure  of  the  Manichgean  heresy, 
the  Church  early  set  the  stamp  of  its  disapproval 
upon  sentiments  of  this  sort,  and  reaffirmed,  in  the 
face  of  objections  that  must  have  seemed  even  more 
formidable  to  the  mind  of  those  days  than  they  seem 
to  the  mind  of  these,  St.  Paul's  dicta  that  "the 
earth  is  the  Lord's,"  and  that  "every  creature  of 
God  is  good." 

These  thoughts  lead  up  to  the  following  ques- 
tions :  — 


80 


APPENDIX. 


(a)  How,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has  the  mind  of 
Christendom  stood  affected  towards  the  sacramental 
element  in  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament  during 
the  centuries  that  have  elapsed  since  the  mandates 
"  Do  this  "  and  "  Go,  baptize  "  were  issued  ? 

(6)  How  stand  the  two  Sacraments  of  the  Gospel 
related  to  the  general  question  of  the  unity  of  the 
Church  ? 

(c)  Is  there  anything  about  the  third  article  of 
the  Lambeth  Declaration  ^  that  conspicuously  differ- 
entiates it  from  other  formal  utterances  upon  the 
same  subject  with  which  it  is  natural  for  us  to 
compare  it  ? 

First,  then,  how  has  it  fared  with  the  institutes 
themselves  ?  How  have  men  thought  and  felt  and 
spoken  and  written  about  sacraments  during  the  sixty 
generations,  more  or  less,  covered  by  Church  history  ? 

"Very  variously,"  is  the  only  answer  possible. 

As  was  just  intimated,  the  attitude  of  the  indi- 
vidual Christian  towards  the  sacramental  element 
will,  in  every  case,  be  largely  determined  by  his 
native  cast  of  mind.  If  he  be  one  who  naturally 
inclines  to  take  things  in  the  concrete,  and  who 
abhors  abstractions,  esteeming  them  to  be  mere 
unsubstantial  nothings,  he  will  incline  to  magnify 
the  sacraments,  and  to  wonder  why  there  should  be 
so  few  of  them.    If,  on  the  other  hand,  his  personal 

1  "  The  two  Sacriimeuts  ordained  by  Christ  Himself,  Baptism  and  the 
Supper  of  the  Lord,  ministered  witli  unfailinj^  use  of  Christ's  words  of 
institution  and  of  the  elements  ordained  by  Him." 


APPENDIX. 


81 


bias  is  distinctly  towards  idealism,  disposing  him  to 
brand  as  unspiritual  and  earthy  whatsoever  religious 
product  refuses  to  let  itself  be  completely  volatilized 
in  the  alembic  of  criticism,  he  will  almost  inevitably 
take  the  minimizing  line,  and  instead  of  wondering 
why  Christ  should  have  ordained  no  more  than  two 
sacraments,  as  generically  necessary  to  salvation, 
will  rather  marvel  that  He  should  have  ordained  any 
at  all.  For  to  a  completely  subjective  system  of 
theology,  a  sacrament  is  ex  vi  termini  an  excrescence. 

As  with  individuals,  so  with  their  followings ;  for, 
after  all,  a  "school  of  thought,"  so  called,  is  but 
the  aura  that  exhales  from  and  orbs  itself  about 
a  strong  personality :  sects,  parties,  denominations, 
are  observed  to  be  sacramental  or  non-sacramental 
in  their  general  tone,  according  to  the  character  of 
the  invitation  given  out  by  the  founder  when  the 
sect,  party,  or  denomination  took  its  rise. 

Moreover,  it  is  inevitable  that  in  this  matter  the 
law  of  reaction  should,  from  time  to  time,  make 
itself  felt;  religion  of  the  ultra-sacramental  type 
becoming  so  plainly  and  hopelessly  materialistic  and 
mechanical  that  earnest  men  arc  impelled,  out  of 
very  loyalty  to  Him  who  is  a  Spirit,  to  break  with 
it  altogether. 

The  Protestant  Reformation,  on  its  theological  as 
distinguished  from  its  political  side,  was  a  gigantic 
movement  of  this  sort.  A  complicated  sacramental 
system,  hammered  out  on  the  anvils  of  the  school- 
men, had  been  fastened  as  by  bolts  and  rivets  about 
■  (5 


82 


APPENDIX. 


the  body  of  Christ,  until  the  Church  had  found  itself 
actually  imprisoned  in  its  own  armor.  What  won- 
der if,  in  the  violence  of  the  escape  from  this  man- 
made  coat  of  mail,  the  inner  and  more  delicate  fabric 
of  the  true  sacramental  vesture  which  Christ,  out  of 
pity  for  man's  nakedness,  had  woven  with  his  own 
hands  should  have  suffered  hurt?  It  could  not  be 
otherwise.  A  live  Christianity  protests  against  a 
materialized  religion  as  instinctively  as  the  eye 
protests  against  the  cinder  that  has  found  its  way 
beneath  the  lid ;  and  when  men  have  had  dinned  into 
them  for  centuries  the  doctrine  that  only  by  sacer- 
dotal manipulation  can  they  be  saved,  it  only  needs 
the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  the  vulgar 
tongue  and  a  consequent  acquaintance  with  what 
that  document  has  to  say  about  mint,  anise,  and  cum- 
min and  the  baptism  of  pots  and  pans,  to  precipitate 
a  revolution. 

Thus  swings  the  pendulum,  thus  ebbs  and  flows 
the  tide:  first  the  image-maker;  then  the  image- 
breaker  ;  then,  chisel  in  hand,  the  restorer  of  damaged 
carvings,  saying  cheerily,  "After  all,  the  image  was 
not  so  bad;  let  us  supply  the  lost  features,  change 
the  expression  a  bit,  and  put  it  back  in  the  old 
niche."  Eighteenth-century  Boston  turned  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ  into  a  metaphysic,  but  kept  on  observing 
the  "  ordinances  "  by  force  of  habit,  all  unconscious, 
as  it  would  seem,  that  Puritan  premises  necessitated 
Quaker  conclusions.  By  and  by  came  Emerson,  true 
child  of  idealizing  forbears,  saying  to  his  startled 


APPENDIX. 


83 


communicants,  What  have  these  material  emblems 
to  do  with  a  spiritual  religion  ?  How  long  halt  ye 
between  two  opinions  ?  If  the  Pope  be  right,  follow 
him;  but  if  George  Fox,  follow  him.  Either  take 
these  things  hence  or  dismiss  me  from  my  charge. 

This  sounded  logical  as  well  as  ethical,  and  many 
of  New  England's  best  flocked  to  the  transcendental 
standard.  But  after  one  generation  of  these  keen- 
witted folk  had  made  trial  of  a  Christianity  stripped 
of  its  raiment  and  left  bare,  devout  hearts  not  a  few 
woke  up  to  perceive  and  to  confess  that  the  outward 
side  of  religion  had  its  value  also;  the  voice  of 
Oxford,  nay,  of  Rome,  was  heard  in  the  gates,  and 
it  began  to  be  whispered  of  Bostonians,  Lo,  they 
attend  Mass. 

(b)  What  is  the  bearing  of  the  sacramental  ele- 
ment in  religion  upon  the  general  question  of  the 
unity  of  the  Church  ? 

All  societies  arc  committed  by  the  very  nature  of 
their  being  to  some  measure  of  symbolism.  Men 
who  find  themselves,  by  the  condition  of  their  birth 
or  by  a  definite  voluntary  act  of  their  own,  knit 
together,  insist  that  by  some  outward  action  or 
object  this  oneness  shall  be  made  apparent.  The 
essential  fact  itself  is  indeed  invisible,  but  who  is 
to  be  the  wiser  for  the  fact,  unless  at  some  point  in 
the  circuit  the  viewless  unifying  force  flashes  into 
light?  Scores  of  familiar  phrases  testify  to  this 
truth;  "a  family  crest,"  "the  regimental  colors," 
"a  civic  seal,"  —  these  are  witnesses,  respectively, 


84 


APPENDIX. 


to  tribal,  military,  and  municipal  unity.  People 
seldom,  if  ever,  dispute  about  tbese  emblems,  and 
for  the  simple  reason  that  they  arc  understood  to 
stand  for  facts  with  respect  to  which  there  is  no 
difference  of  opinion.  The  data  of  a  man's  origin 
and  kinship  are  settled  and  fixed;  how,  then,  should 
he  dispute  over  the  heraldic  token  of  that  which  he 
cannot  change  if  he  would  ?  Manifestly,  his  true 
wisdom  is  to  make  the  best  and  the  most  of  what  is 
unalterable.  Hence,  as  a  rule,  men  take  both  pride 
and  satisfaction  in  any  symbolism  that  reminds  them 
of  a  unity  to  which  they  stand,  so  to  say,  inevitably 
committed.  Only  "  the  man  without  a  country " 
would  dream  of  going  in  search  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  all  flags  in  order  that  under  it  he  might  live. 
He  instinctively  cheers  the  flag  under  which  he  was 
born,  because,  having  been  born  under  it,  he  has 
always  thought  of  it  as  his  own  flag.  It  indicated  na- 
tional decadence  and  disunion  that  the  Psalmist 
should  have  felt  moved  to  complain,  "  We  see  not  our 
tokens."  Rob  the  Church  of  her  sacramental  guar- 
antees of  unit}^  break  down  with  axes  and  hammers 
her  font  and  altar,  and  you  provoke  the  same  cry. 
How  can  we  know  that  we  are  one  if  we  see  not  the 
tokens ;  and,  contrariwise,  if  we  see  the  tokens,  are 
we  not  reminded  by  the  very  sight  that,  however  wo 
may  differ  on  a  thousand  points,  we  still,  in  the 
very  truest  and  deepest  sense  of  all,  arc  one  body  in 
Christ  ?  Sacraments,  in  a  word,  are  sacraments  of 
pre-existent  fact. 


APPENDIX. 


85 


But  there  is  more  to  be  said  lor  the  unifying  power 
of  sacraments  even  than  this.  It  is  not  enough  to 
show  the  emblematic  value  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  These  forms  of  action  are,  indeed,  wit- 
nesses to  the  oneness  of  those  who  join  in  solemniz- 
ing them,  but  how  stand  they  connected  with  that 
Spirit  of  life  without  whose  energizing  and  vivify- 
ing presence  unity  is,  and  must  continue,  a  barren 
name  ? 

The  masters  in  Sociology  tell  us  that  the  two  prime 
factors  in  the  evolution  of  the  human  race  are  the 
instinct  of  reproduction  and  the  struggle  for  food. 
Children  perpetually  coming  to  the  birth,  men  for- 
ever toiling  and  moiling  that  they  may  find  bread  for 
themselves  and  for  those  whom  they  have  begotten,  — 
this,  even  this,  after  history  has  mouthed  its  finest 
phrases,  and  art  spread  its  brightest  colors,  and 
poetry  sung  its  softest  notes,  —  this,  even  this,  is  what 
it  all  comes  to,  so  far  as  the  earthly  side  of  things  is 
concerned,  that  we  should  be  born,  and  having  been 
born  should  strive  for  the  means  of  keeping  alive. 
Surely  to  Sociology  we  may  say,  if  this  be  indeed 
her  last  word  to  us,  "  Thank  you  for  nothing. " 

But  what  a  different  aspect  the  whole  thing  takes 
on  when  looked  at  from  the  heavenly  places !  Christ 
comes  into  the  world,  not  only  that  He  may  live  the 
life  of  man,  but  that  He  may,  in  the  fine  phrase  of  the 
Te  Deum^  "  lift  us  up  for  ever,"  so  can-ying  tlve  very 
manhood  itself  into  God.  His  mission  is  not  merely 
to  prepare  i)eople  to  die,  —  what  a  melancholy  blunder 


86 


APPEXDIX. 


it  was,  ever  to  have  put  such  an  interpretation  upon 
his  errand  I  —  not  merely  to  prepare  people  to  die,  but 
to  prepare  "  a  people  "  to  live.  He  appears  upon  the 
planet's  surface  that  He  may  become  the  re-organizer 
of  the  human  race.  "  Make  ready  for  the  Kingdom," 
is  the  cry  of  his  annoimcer.  "  Make  ready  for  the 
Kingdom,"  is  his  own  cry  when  He  is  come. 

But  the  new  Society,  the  coming  Kingdom,  is  not 
to  be  wholly  different  from  the  old.  It  is  to  be  the 
old  glorified  and  ennobled.  Whatever,  therefore,  is 
most  central  to  the  sociology  of  human  life  as  it  is 
will  be  likely  to  discover  its  counterpart  and  analogue 
in  the  Sociology  of  the  Kingdom.  Even  so  we  find  it. 
His  Church  is  given  by  Christ  two  sacraments,  and 
only  two  ;  because  these  are  adequate  to  meet  the  two 
great  demands  of  society  as  such  —  namely,  the  need 
that  members  shall  be  born  into  it,  and  the  need  that 
for  the  children  thus  begotten  and  brought  forth  there 
shall  be  food ;  otherwise  the  grand  enterprise  of  mak- 
ing a  people  must  fail.  The  sacrament  of  Baptism  is 
the  sacrament  of  birth.  The  subject  of  it  is  regenerate 
or  born  anew  into  the  family  of  God.  The  sacrament 
of  Holy  Communion  is  the  sacrament  of  nourishment. 
"  As  the  living  Father  hath  sent  mc,  and  I  live  by  the 
Father ;  so  he  that  eateth  me,  even  he  shall  live  by 
me."  Certainly  it  ought  to  startle  thoce  who  are  to- 
day belittling  the  claims  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the 
gratitude  of  mankind,  to  note  how  marvellously  his 
sacramental  mandates  have  anticipated  the  ripest 
modern  thought.    It  would  appear  that  it  is  Science 


APPENDIX. 


87 


that  is  catching  up  with  Christ,  rather  than  Christ 
who  is  lagging  behind  Science. 

This  is  one  interpretation  of  the  significance  of  the 
sacraments ;  others  are  possible  and  valuable,  for  it  is 
the  glory  of  visible  symbolism  that  it  combines  under 
a  single  outward  form  more  shades  and  phases  of 
truth  than  can  possibly  be  put  into  any  single  verbal 
proposition.  This  particular  rationale  of  the  matter 
seems  to  be  the  one  that  underlies  the  sacramental 
offices  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  It  may  be 
considered  as  a  Greek  in  contrast  with  a  Latin  way 
of  looking  at  the  thing. 

(e)  But  what  of  the  attitude  taken  up  by  the  Bishops 
at  Lambeth  with  reference  to  this  whole  subject  ? 
The  third  of  the  four  articles  that  compose  the  Decla- 
ration reads  as  follows :  "  The  two  Sacraments  or- 
dained by  Christ  Himself,  Baptism  and  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord,  ministered  with  unfailing  use  of  Christ's 
words  of  institution  and  of  the  elements  ordained  by 
Him." 

This  language  would  seem  to  admit  of  only  one 
construction,  and  that  a  very  generous  one.  As 
against  those  who  hold  that  no  sacraments  are  essen- 
tial to  the  unity  of  the  Church,  it  is  indeed  exclusive  ; 
as  against  those  who  hold  that  sacraments  other  than 
those  ordained  by  Christ  Himself  are  essential  to  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  it  is  also  exclusive  ;  but  it  is 
hospitable  to  all  who,  having  accepted  the  Scriptures 
and  assented  to  the  primitive  Creeds,  are  content  to 
receive  and  to  observe  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 


88 


APPENDIX 


under  the  form  prescribed  in  the  New  Testament. 
The  large  catholicity  of  this  way  of  putting  the  thing 
has  scarcely  had  justice  done  it  thus  far  in  the  discus- 
sion. Neither  in  England  nor  in  America  does  there 
seem  to  have  been  any  adequate  appreciation  of  what 
it  meant  for  Anglican  theologians  to  concede  so  much 
as  is  here  conceded.  That  this  article  should  have 
been  allowed  to  pass,  as  it  has  passed,  almost  without 
challenge  and  as  if  it  were  the  merest  commonplace,  is, 
of  all  the  surprises  of  which  this  long  debate  has  been 
prolific,  the  most  surprising.  When  we  consider  how 
the  whole  Anglican  Communion  has  been,  for  three 
hundred  years,  racked  and  torn  by  disputes  as  to  the 
true  philosophy  of  the  sacraments ;  when  we  recall 
the  scores,  yes,  the  hundreds  of  volumes  that  have  been 
written  during  the  last  half-century,  to  go  no  further 
back,  for  the  purpose  of  unfolding  and  establishing 
the  true  theory  of  baptismal  regeneration  and  eucha- 
ristic  grace, — how  astonishing  it  is  that  a  proposition 
to  throw  theories  to  the  wind  and  to  rest  content  with 
simply  observing  the  mandates,  leaving  the  blessing  to 
come  in  such  fashion  as  it  shall  please  God  to  send  it, 
—  how  amazing  that,  with  all  the  facts  of  the  past  in 
full  view,  such  a  proposition  as  this  should  have  pro- 
voked no  ripple  of  dissent,  stirred  no  syllable  of  protest! 
One  might  suppose  that  the  Church  of  England  and  its 
sister  Church  in  this  country  would  have  been  up  in 
arms.  And  yet  well-intentioned  people  by  the  thou- 
sand, who  do  not  mean  to  misrepresent  any  person  or 
any  thing,  go  on  saying  that  the  Lambeth  Declaration 


APPEXDIX. 


89 


exhibits  no  real  concession  on  the  part  of  those  who 
framed  it,  and  that  it  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  a 
plausible  device  for  persuading  non-Episcopal  Chris- 
tians to  become  Episcopalians  in  ignorance  of  what 
they  are  about.  No  concession  on  the  part  of  An- 
glicans in  declaring  that  henceforth  there  shall  be 
on  their  part  no  insistence  upon  any  theory  of  the 
sacraments  provided  the  sacraments  themselves  are 
honored  and  their  use  maintained  ?  Xo  concession  ? 
Why,  the  history  of  English  religion,  since  Elizabeth's 
reign,  shows  nothing  to  compare  with  it.  Think  of 
the  long  succession  of  wrangles  over  this  subject,  be- 
ginning from  the  day  when  men  were  burned  to  death 
for  having  erroneously  conceived  the  doctrine  of  the 
real  presence,  and  coming  down  to  the  latest  instance 
of  imprisonment  for  ritual  malpractice  ;  recall  the 
Gorham  controversy,  the  Hampden  controversy ;  re- 
member the  silencing  of  Pusey,the  hegira  of  Xcwman; 
refresh  your  recollection  of  the  Tractarian  literature ; 
read  again  the  Apologia  and  tlie  Eirenicon;  look  back 
at  the  genesis  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  and 
then  declare,  is  it  nothing  that  the  leaders  of  the  Com- 
munion which  has  witnessed  all  this  fratricidal  strife 
should  come  forward  —  voluntarily  come  forward  — 
and  declare  that  a  man's  philosophy  of  the  sacraments 
shall  no  longer  be  made  the  test  of  his  fitness  to  receive 
the  sacraments  ? 

And  yet  we  are  continually  hearing  it  said,  on  this 
side  and  that,  as  the  discussion  proceeds,  "  Oh,  as  to 
the  first  three  articles  of  the  Declaration,  we  need  not 


90 


APPENDIX. 


waste  time  over  them,  —  about  them  we  are  practically 
agreed  already  ;  the  only  point  worth  arguing  is  '  the 
historic  Episcopate.'  " 

Now,  while  it  is  true  that  the  question  of  the 
historic  Episcopate,  for  the  reason  that  it  touclies 
particular  individuals  and  imports  a  personal  element 
into  the  debate,  is,  in  a  way,  more  interesting  than 
the  questions  of  the  Bible,  the  Creed,  and  the  Sacra- 
ments, it  is  not  true  that  it  is  intrinsically  more 
important  than  they.  If  those  who  have  been  criticis- 
ing the  Bishops  for  what  they  "  demand  "  in  the  fourth 
article  would  give  a  little  time  to  considering  wliat 
these  same  Bishops  concede  in  the  third,  we  should 
come,  all  of  us,  into  calmer  mood,  besides  attaining, 
or,  let  me  say,  because  of  our  having  attained,  a  truer 
perspective. 

But  whether  the  Bishops  of  the  Anglican  Com- 
munion accomplish  anything  for  unity  or  not,  they 
are  to  be  congratulated  as  theologians  upon  having 
taken  in  this  matter  of  the  sacraments  a  position 
which  is  intrinsically  unassailable. 

"Wliy  should  we  expect  to  know  more  about  the 
body  spiritual  than  we  can  possibly  pretend  to  know 
about  the  body  natural  ?  Ecclesiology  ought  to  be 
esteemed  at  least  as  difficult  a  study  as  Physiology. 
If  Baptism  be  the  sacrament  of  birth  and  Holy  Com- 
munion the  sacrament  of  nourishment,  we  surely  ought 
not  to  complain  if  these  phenomena  of  the  spiritual 
order  show  themselves  as  little  amenable  to  analyti- 
cal treatment  as  do  the  corresponding  phenomena  in 


APPENDIX. 


91 


the  natural  order.  No  man,  in  the  present  state  of 
our  knowledge,  so  much  as  dreams  of  explaining  the 
inner  secrets  of  embryology  and  nutrition ;  why  then 
should  we  expect  to  understand,  or  why  should  we 
wish  to  force  others  into  saying  that  they  understand, 
how  souls  are  born  or  how  spirits  are  fed  ?  It  is  not 
first  the  spiritual  and  then  the  natural ;  it  is  "  first 
the  natural  and  then  the  spiritual."  We  reverse  the 
true  order  of  the  mind's  progress  when  we  grapple 
with  the  hardest  problems  first.  If  the  day  ever 
comes  for  us  to  understand  all  mysteries  and  all 
knowledge,  we  shall  doubtless,  along  with  other 
things,  possess  a  complete  philosophy  of  sacraments ; 
but  perhaps  by  that  time  we  shall  have  got  beyond 
the  need  of  sacraments.  Lambeth,  Geneva,  Rome 
will  all  have  been  forgotten. 


92 


APPENDIX. 


B. 

THE  PLACE  OF  TEMPERAMENT  IN 
RELIGION.i 

The  variety  which  characterizes  men's  attitudes 
in  religion  is  probably  in  the  main  due  to  diverse 
methods  of  training.  We  think  thus  or  so  about 
creeds,  sacraments,  prayers,  maxims  of  conduct,  and 
the  like,  because  we  are  brought  up  to  think  thus  or 
so  about  them.  But  allowance  must  also  be  made  for 
that  mysterious  background  of  every  man's  life  which 
we  know  as  his  natui*al  temperament.  The  ancient 
physicians  went  very  deeply  into  this  matter,  or 
thought  that  they  did,  for  they  not  only  classified 
men  according  to  their  temperaments,  but  they 
insisted  that  the  temperaments  themselves  were 
occasioned  by  certain  humours  fluent  throughout  the 
body,  and  by  their  presence  there  determining  that 
one  man  should  be  "  sanguine,"  another  "  choleric," 
or  another  "  melancholy,"  as  the  case  might  be. 
This  theory  has  been  long  dead,  though  the  nomen- 
clature of  it  survives  in  the  usages  of  common 
speech ;  and  yet  the  doctrine  of  the  four  liumours 

1  Extract  from  a  Sermon  preached  before  the  Faculty  and  Students 
of  the  Divinity  School  at  Philadelphia. 


APPENDIX. 


93 


or  temperaments  may  be  said  to  have  something 
that  answers  to  it  in  the  permanent  constitution 
of  human  nature.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are 
four  predominant  ways  of  looking  at  things,  four 
moods  or  tempers  that  always  have  prevailed  and 
doubtless  always  will  prevail  to  color  the  intercourse 
of  man  with  man.  There  are  born  conservatives  and 
born  liberals  ;  nay,  more  than  this,  there  are  born 
liberal-conservatives  and  boi'n  conservative-liberals. 

These  are  the  four  temperaments.  Get  together 
any  considerable  number  of  people,  and  set  them  to 
discussing  any  question  that  touches  upon  human 
conduct,  whether  in  the  political  or  the  social  or  the 
religious  sphere,  and  every  one  of  these  several  ways 
of  looking  at  things  will  be  found  to  be  present  and 
self-assertive.  Under  the  names  of  "  Right "  and 
"  Left,"  "  Right-centre  "  and  "  Left-centre,"  these  dis- 
tinctive  phases  of  thought  and  feeling  figure  continu- 
ally in  the  political  life  of  contemporary  Europe.  But 
although  the  names  are  modern,  the  things  for  which 
they  stand  are  not.  The  fourfold  classification  is 
something  more  than  a  convenience  ;  it  points  to  dif- 
ferences rooted  in  the  nature  of  things.  To  a  mind  of 
the  conservative  cast,  only  such  measures  approve 
themselves  as  have  been  tried  and  tested.  What  is 
venerable  is,  because  venerable,  autlientic  ;  newness 
is  its  own  condemnation.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  sec,  and  ask  for  the  old 
path.s,  wh(M-e  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and 
ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls."    In  tones  so  elo- 


94 


APPENDIX. 


quent  as  these,  and  so  persuasive,  can  Conservatism 
speak. 

But  Liberalism  is  not  less  ready.  "  Faith  "  is  its 
watchword.  Those,  it  reminds  us,  have  been  the  he- 
roes and  leaders  of  mankind  who  have  had  eyes  given 
them  to  discern  the  undiscovered  continents  of  truth ; 
who  have  cut  loose  from  precedent  and  prescription, 
and  have  struck  out  courageously,  forgetful  of  the 
past,  and  deaf  to  all  old-time  traditions,  in  the  confi- 
dent belief  that  safety  lay  in  motion,  and  that  immo- 
bility meant  death.  Moreover,  Liberalism  can  quote 
Scripture  too.  Are  we  not,  it  confidently  asks,  the 
children  of  a  God  who  declares  that  He  makes  "  all 
things  new,"  and  is  not  our  best  hand-book  of  religion 
a  New  Testament  ? 

But  over  and  above  the  minds  distinctly  conserva- 
tive and  the  minds  distinctly  liberal  there  are  other 
minds  so  constituted  that  it  is  impossible  for  them  not 
to  recognize  truth  on  both  sides.  They  feel  the  charm, 
they  admit  the  power,  they  know  the  value,  of  such 
things  as  ripeness  and  maturity ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
they  recognize  all  about  them  evidence  incontrovertible 
that  man  can  and  does  better  himself  in  a  thousand 
ways  by  waiting  upon  the  untried  and  thrusting  out 
valiantly  into  the  deep.  Of  this  intermediate  multi- 
tude one  half,  let  us  say,  grafts  its  faith  in  the  new 
upon  its  confidence  in  the  old,  while  the  other  half 
grafts  its  respect  for  the  old  upon  its  enthusiasm  for 
the  new.  To  the  liberal  conservative  the  old  is  his 
stand-by,  the  new  is  his  half-grudging  concession.  To 


APPENDIX. 


95 


the  conservative-liberal  the  new  is  his  heart's  desire, 
while  the  old  is  something  which  he  has  learned  that 
it  is  dangerous  to  leave  out  of  the  account.  These  are 
the  four  temperaments  of  man,  and  of  these  is  the 
whole  earth  overspread.  What  I  have  been  describing 
is  no  accident  of  the  passing  century,  no  special  char- 
acteristic of  one  race  or  people  rather  than  another ; 
it  is  a  law  of  variation  inbred  in  humanity  as  such. 
We  are  born  so. 

The  religious  and  ecclesiastical  results  of  tempera- 
ment make  an  interesting  study.  The  three  great 
territorial  divisions  of  the  Church  are  her  doctrine, 
her  governance,  and  her  worship.  She  is  here  on  earth 
to  teach,  to  shepherd,  and  to  pray.  The  soul  of  man 
needs  to  be  instructed,  it  needs  to  be  sympathized  with, 
it  needs  to  be  uplifted.  Upon  the  Churcli's  shoulders 
rests  the  duty  of  meeting  this  threefold  need  :  she 
must  make  disciples,  she  must  gather  these  disciples 
into  a  flock,  she  must  lead  the  flock  in  the  green 
pastures  of  devotion.  As  visible  symbols,  concrete 
emblems  of  this  triple  ministry,  we  have  the  pulpit, 
the  pastoral  staff,  the  altar  ;  these  concrete  tokens 
help  us  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  abstract 
terms,  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship. 

But  the  point  to  be  especially  emphasized  is  this  — 
that  when  the  four  temperaments  of  man  arc  brought 
into  contact  and  connection  with  the  three  forms  of 
the  Church's  activity,  there  ensue  combinations  so 
various  and  so  intricate  that  the  futility  as  well  as  the 
injustice  of  our  current  partisan  vocabulary  is  made 


96 


APPENDIX. 


manifest  at  once.  Take  doctrine,  for  instance,  and 
consider  how  delicately  shaded  off,  one  into  another, 
are  the  differences  that  divide  men  in  the  Church. 

The  conservative  is  all  for  the  "  faith  once  deliv- 
ered," "  the  sacred  deposit,"  "  the  Catholic  Creed." 
He  insists,  and  insists  rightly,  that  Christianity  is 
what  it  is  in  virtue  of  certain  disclosures  made  to 
man  at  definite  epochs  in  history.  He  maintains, 
and  maintains  justly,  that  unless  Christ's  religion 
brings  us  a  cleax'ly  articulated  message  with  respect 
to  subjects  about  which  we  should  otherwise  have 
remained  ignorant  to  the  end  of  time,  we  are  no 
better  off  than  the  heathen,  who  may,  if  they  choose, 
guess  at  truth  as  well  as  we. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  liberal  makes  much  of  a 
certain  prophetic  succession  which  is,  to  his  mind, 
quite  as  important  as  any  apostolic  succession  possibly 
can  be  to  other  minds.  Why  should  we  believe,  he 
asks,  that  progress  in  the  attainment  of  spiritual 
knowledge  stopped  short  at  the  close  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, or,  if  not  so  soon  as  that,  then  on  the  day  of  the 
adjournment  of  the  last  of  "  the  undisputed  general 
councils  "  ?  Did  not  Christ  promise  his  disciples  the 
assistance  of  an  ever-present  spiritual  Revealer  who 
should  guide  them,  little  by  little,  into  all  the  truth  ? 
So,  then,  the  fresher  any  man's  theology,  and  the 
more  neai'ly  up  to  date,  the  better.  But  "  Stop  ! 
Stop ! "  cries  the  conservative-liberal  ;  "  this  will 
never  do.  I  grant  you  that  ships  are  given  sails 
in  order  that  they  may  stand  out  to  sea,  trusting 


APPENDIX. 


97 


themselves  to  the  winds  of  God  ;  but  they  are  also 
equipped  with  anchors  ;  and  while  I  am  willing  and 
glad  to  start  off  with  you  on  your  voyage  of  discovery, 
I  refuse  to  step  on  board  until  you  show  me  some  evi- 
dence of  your  having  made  provision  against  gales." 
While  —  last  and  wisest  of  them  all  —  the  liberal-con- 
servative insists  that  neither  is  "  fixity  of  interpreta- 
tion "  nor  yet  laxity  of  interpretation  really  "  of  the 
essence  of  the  Creed,"  but  that  what  is  of  its  essence 
is  a  certain  marvellous  adaptability,  whereby  it  comes 
to  pass  that  the  articles  of  the  faith  are  never  nega- 
tived, but  only  given  a  fuller,  deeper,  and  more  satis- 
fying signification,  the  faster  the  great  Father  of 
Lights  lets  more  light  be  poured  down  into  this  dim 
world  of  his.  Copernicus  did  not  annul  the  first 
paragraph  of  the  Creed  by  what  he  proved,  Newton 
laid  no  violent  hand  upon  the  second,  Lavoisier  caused 
no  hiatus  in  the  third  ;  but  the  words  "  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth,"  the  words  "  He  ascended  into 
heaven,"  and  the  words  "  the  Resurrection  of  the 
body,"  have  meant  more  to  intelligent  believers  since 
these  three  men  made  their  discoveries  than  they 
meant  before.  That  is  what  the  liberal-conservative 
has  to  say  about  it,  —  the  man  who  believes  in  the 
past,  but  not  so  stupidly  as  to  keep  his  eyes  fast  shut 
to  anything  that  God  may  be  revealing  in  the  present. 

Tt  is  easy  to  sec  tliat  in  the  field  of  governance  the 
conservative  will  naturally  favor  whatever  makes  for 
continuity  of  control,  for  regularity  in  the  transmis- 
sion of  authority,  and  in  general  for  what  we  know 

■  7 


98 


APPENDIX. 


as  legitimacy ;  that  the  liberal,  on  the  other  hand, 
will  smile  approvingly  on  new  methods  of  adminis- 
tration, and,  so  that  men  make  full  proof  of  their  minis- 
try by  showing  themselves  successful  in  the  conversion 
of  souls  to  God,  will  deprecate  too  close  a  scrutiny  of 
ecclesiastical  pedigrees  ;  that  the  conservative-liberal 
will  say  :  "  Oh  yes,  I  like  this  spiritual  freedom ;  but 
would  n't  it  be  prudent  to  draw  the  line  somewhere  ? " 
and  that  the  liberal-conservative  will  respond  :  "  Yes, 
certainly,  the  line  must  be  drawn ;  but  let  us  make  it 
just  as  inclusive  as  ever  we  conscientiously  can.  The 
one  sin  which  God  Almighty  will  never  forgive  to  any 
portion  of  his  Church  is  the  sin  of  want  of  sympathy." 

And  then,  again,  there  is  worship.  We  can  have 
little  doubt  as  to  how  the  men  of  the  different  tem- 
peraments will  stand  affected  towards  that.  With  the 
conservative  it  will  be  the  rubric,  the  whole  rubric, 
and  nothing  but  the  rubric  ;  with  the  liberal  it  will  be 
what  he  laxly  calls  "  the  rubric  of  common-sense." 
The  conservative-liberal  will  declare  that  he  loves  a 
simple,  unaffected,  and,  as  it  were,  spontaneous  ren- 
dering of  divine  service,  while  yet  he  does  not  see 
why  it  should  not  be  enriched  a  little  and  made  digni- 
fied by  the  old  traditional  methods  ;  while  the  liberal- 
conservative  will  argue  that,  supposing  those  who  are 
attached  to  the  old  ways  in  all  their  oldncss  are  not 
only  allowed  to  have  them,  but  arc  given  guarantees 
that  they  shall  never  be  molested  in  their  enjoyment 
of  them,  he  cannot,  for  the  life  of  him,  understand 
why  Anglicans  should  refuse  Church  fellowship  to 


APPEXDIX. 


99 


congregations  of  Christian  folk  who  are  ready  for 
their  polity,  but  not  quite  ready  for  all  the  details 
of  their  liturgy. 

It  might  at  first  sight  appear,  from  what  has  been 
said,  as  if  Churchmen  might  all  be  classified  —  if 
classified  they  must  be  —  under  four  heads ;  but  no, 
the  thing  is  far  from  being  so  simple  as  all  this,  seeing 
that  various  cross-combinations  are  possible,  conser- 
vatism itself  seeming  to  one  conservative  to  demand 
that  he  differ  from  his  brother  conservative  in  mat- 
ters of  worship  while  agreeing  with  him  in  questions 
of  polity,  and  that  he  agree  with  another  on  points  of 
polity  while  differing  with  him  widely  in  his  view  of 
dogma. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  only  four  varieties  of  Church- 
manship,  there  may  conceivably  be  it  is  difficult  to 
say  how  many.  And  what  is  the  just  inference  from 
such  a  conclusion  ?  Is  it  not  this,  —  that  since  all 
these  manifold  types  of  character  do,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  already  co-exist  amicably  enough  within  the 
limits  of  a  single  historic  Church,  there  is  no  reason, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  why  that  Church  should  not 
become  far  more  truly  an  American  Church  than  it 
can  truthfully  boast  of  being  now  ? 

Already  Anglican  religion  is  in  theory  liospitablc 
and  inclusive;  it  remains  for  us  of  this  new  world, 
acting  under  the  guidance  and  blessing  of  Uim  who, 
doubtless  for  cause,  led  our  fathers  hither,  to  see 
whether  we  cannot  translate  theory  into  fact. 


100 


APPENDIX. 


c. 

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1  This  Biblioj^raphy  has  been  mainly  compiled  by  the  Kev.  Melville 
K.  Bailey,  of  Grace  Chapel  Settlement,  New  York. 


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101 


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  A  Defence  of  the  Principles  of  Love.  London, 

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Carroll,  H.  K.,  LL.D.  The  Religious  Forces  of  the 
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Chalmers,  Thos.,  D.D.,  et  al.  Essays  on  Christian 
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Chamberlain,  L.  T.,  D.D.  Christian  Unity  and  the 
Evangelization  of  Philadelphia :  An  Address,  Nov.  29, 
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Church  Club  Lectures,  1895.  Christian  Unity  and 
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Church,  P.  Religious  Dissensions :  Their  Cause  and 
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Church  Unity.  Five  Lectures  delivered  in  the  Union 
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Clark,  Rev.  Dorus,  D.D.  The  Oneness  of  the  Chris- 
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Distinguishing  Truth  from  Error  in  Questions  of  the 
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103 


Crothers,  Samuel  McChord.  "  Members  of  One  Body." 
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Davenport,  J.  S.  Christian  Unity  and  its  Recovery. 
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Dawson,  W.J.  The  Church  of  To-morrow.  (Addresses.) 
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